Cranes
by Akemi Angst
Summary: Kagome and Inuyasha fought Naraku. They lost. 200 years later, will they have a chance to succeed where they failed before? In love and in battle?Ch. 5 Revised. Chapter 6 finally up! The Lady and the Demon Resistance.
1. Her Solitude

AN: Okay everyone! Here we go. This is something I've been working on for a while. It's only semi AU, as you'll see later. Taking some good advice given to me by reviewers of my last story, Witnesses, (Thank you POAS and inu-yasha4ever89!) I am resisting the urge to point out the flaws I see in this chapter. But feel free to point them out yourselves. Please review! It's not that I don't write for myself its more that myself wants to write more when encouraged by reviews. Hmm, did that sentence make sense? The point is, while I do worry about the flaws I see in my writing, I am also proud and happy to write so I'll hold back and leave the critiquing up to the (hopefully many!) reviewers. 

Anyway, strange as it may be, this story has two prologues. I could have combined them, since both are really short, but I thought they were better as individual chapters. Who knows, maybe I'll end up changing my mind. Anyway, about the prologues, this one in particular: Things that aren't clear will become more so very soon, so bear with me. Well, enough of this. Please enjoy! 

Oh, wait…I don't own Inuyasha. Or Kagome. Or any of the characters/ situations/plots that we all know belong to Rumiko Takahashi. Or much of anything, if you must know. But that's another story.  (Disclaimer). Now finally…

Prologue A: Her Solitude

Delicate hands deftly folded the final details. Slim fingers pulled apart the wings and the crane revealed itself. A mouth turned upwards tenderly, just as it always had, as it always would, at her creation. The same delicate hands threaded a dull needle with thread as white as the paper crane in her lap. With practiced ease she threaded it and then hung it from her ceiling by standing on a plush pale pink chair. On the ceiling it was indistinguishable from the thousands of others. 

Clutching a faintly glowing jewel to her chest, the graceful face flickered with happiness again. Pale lips turned up in a smile. The girl twirled a little in her dress, her new dress, dark hair flying out parallel to the skirt. She wondered where the dress came from, where anything came from in her peaceful, beautiful little world. She brushed that thought aside a moment later. It was a perfect dress, like the one she had dreamed of. She had never owned something so deep with color before. It was amazing that her mind had even known that such a color existed. 

She knew that by speaking in hushed tones, seemingly to herself anywhere in her solitary world, she could receive what she desired. And so she had spoken loudly to the warm jewel that never left her side, day after day, of the glorious enveloping green dress that she had worn in her dreams, the dress in which she felt so perfect and at peace. Of course it had appeared for her soon, she was given almost anything that she desired. There was not much that she asked for. What could she want? Still she enjoyed the gifts as much as she was able, with detachment and complacent contentment. They were, to her mind, proof that the vague hope within her, that there were other people in the world was true. The crane was something from them, someone must have first thought of it, for her to have dreamed it, for her to have been able to create it. 

She had very few memories, and those she did have seemed faded unreal and often times unconnected and contradictory. But somehow she knew the crane, and knew it had been important. She had two distinct memories of it. The first was of a hospital, how she knew it was a hospital she knew not, where gentle female hands guided her own, or at least what seemed to be her own, smaller and clumsier hands. The other was more disturbing. Emotional on a level that she could scarcily comprehend. In this memory the hands guiding were hers, and she held the hands that were clawed and inhumanly pale, not that she really knew how she could know what was and wasn't human. It was touching and painful and she didn't know why. 

The second memory was the stronger one, the one that she felt resonate inside her, locked just out of reach yet inarguably hers. It was also the more confusing, since the hands in that memory were the hands of her present, and she had certainly never met anyone recently, let alone felt what she felt in that memory.  The first was more faded and she watched it as one would watch the memories of another, or some sort of make believe show, in detached comprehension. She knew it had allowed the other memory to be clearer though, somehow, so she continued to hold onto it. Memories and cranes both held her hope of not being alone, told her there was a time when she had been with others. 

The cranes she made now were always white, though they could probably have been any color or mix of colors that she chose. She chose white for the pureness and because she felt no natural inclination toward any particular color. She chose white as the color of a blank soul. She chose white for a world that might have only been in her head, a world which could be beautiful, and adventurous as she remembered, or dark and hard as the distant memories told her. For this she labored, for this she dreamed. She sat down on the soft bed provided to her, face blankly content. 

She never told of the rest of the green dress dream, the disturbing parts to which she had awakened gasping and crying silently. Only flashes, she recalled, dreams or memories, or a mix of the two. 

Across her mind the dream flowed, teasing her with the stark reality of its deep colors and passions. There was a red more brilliant than blood. What looked like silver threads stretching in a breeze. Endless gold pools. And what looked like a mouth, moving mutely, seemingly separate from the word it spoke. One word, whispered to her, for her, in reverence, "Kagome…" And claws cradling her green clad figure. 

Kagome wondered what it felt like to be held. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Okay…so there you go. What do you think? Come on! I really want to know! 


	2. His Prison

AN: Hello hello! Here's another little prologue for you all! I actually like this one better than the first one.  I just looked and realized that the formatting of the other chapter was a bit bad (And no offense taken, Celeste Spring. I didn't mean for it to look so cramped! I wouldn't have been able to read through that mess, and I wrote it!). It seemed so cramped. So I'm off to try and fix that. This story will be picking up real soon, with a plot and everything, so keep reading! In the meanwhile, enjoy this chapter please!

(Disclaimer) I don't own Inuyasha so let's just move on.

Prologue B: His Prison

He sat crouched in the darkness of the cave, squinting his eyes as though some bright light burned them. This was untrue. There was no light in the cave. Even to him, with his acute vision, it was infinitely dark. His white hair was matted and stuck to his face and neck. His ears drooped. He breathed heavily. He wondered where he was. Why he was? He was sure he had died. He had been meant to die when she died. How else could he have allowed her to be injured, mortally wounded? How else could he have allowed her to be dying in his arms, their blood mixing? He wished that everything wasn't so damn fuzzy. He tried to take stock of what he did know. He knew that he had awakened in a cave of some sort, and that it was magically sealed. He knew he had been slowly coming to himself. 

How long had it been? Years surely, of sleepy complacence and the soft glowing light bringing him back to life from somewhere inside him. What could have happened? He had only slowly come back to himself, been able to take stock of what he knew of himself. He knew he was a hanyou, a feared and reviled half demon in an age of war. He remembered vaguely having friends, more clearly having enemies, one in particular over whom he had not been victorious. His name came back to him, flowing through him, comforting and familiar, warm like the blood in his veins. And her, he remembered her, another warm sensation, so much that he knew he had spent months remembering her only. A girl who looked like Kikyo, another lost love who he had known before he had friends, or before he had known his greatest enemy, but was more to him than the other girl, and more to him than she knew.

It was the girl who had somehow preserved him, bound him, with her dying breath. Had she saved herself? He remembered her eyes falling shut, her body stiffening, the glow that her magic had created around her fading. Dead. And yet in his mind he could never hold onto that idea, so maybe it meant that she was alive. Or perhaps he was just a bigger fool that he had dared to imagine. Often in his mind she was angry, somehow slamming him into the ground. She was also often happy, though he knew they had fought many battles together. She appeared to have been more tender to him than anyone save his mother. He also realized that she had never known he loved her. And he had hurt her feelings many times. She had made promises to him anyway. 

He finally, remembered his name, almost smiling at the familiarity and comfort in it. Soon, soon he would be able to move from this place, and he would, despite the magical barriers around him, both dark and light. He had a sword with a name strapped to his red clad hip.

 He flexed one claw and finally managed to smirk before he remembered one final thing, His red eyes, opening wide in disbelief, his claws tearing into soft flesh that hid under flimsy and unusual closing. He found himself quite suddenly able to move more easily and he dug his claws into the earth as he felt in his memories how he had come to himself so suddenly after that, and how he had actually not meant to kill her, even in the haze and blood lust of his demon form. How then?! How had it happened? All he saw was the pain in her eyes. All he felt was the softness of her flesh under his claws. All he heard was the scream, a scream that could have come from either of them. He shook the memory away. He pushed it all away, growling at the night, knowing somewhere in his muddled mind who was responsible, and who would soon pay, if he still lived. He pushed everything away, until he drifted into unconsciousness. He wouldn't watch her die, not again.

 Instead she was spinning in his mind, spinning in a green dress that swirled gracefully. She was spinning, small hands clutching brilliant red fabric, slim green clad waist encircled tenderly by normally rough hands. She laughed and spun in his arms. He heard his voice croak out a single word into his dark prison. "Kagome…" 

Inuyasha wondered how much revulsion she would hide behind her pretty face. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

'Till next time then.

Please review! 


	3. Their Situations

AN: First off, a Big THANK YOU to my lovely reviewers! You have been just lovely, very encouraging! I just hope that soon there will be more of you eventually.

By the by, Fred the Mutant Pickle mentioned that I had written that Inuyasha cared more about Kikyo. I thought, NO WAY! (sorry to doubt you). And then I looked. Sure enough, it was a massive typo/poorly written sentence jumble, which did very much make it seem like exactly that. So, if anyone cares enough to check it out, I have corrected that error. To put it nicely, I am not the biggest Kikyo fan. I feel sorry for her, but usually find myself hating her and all her messing up of Kagome and Inuyasha's relationship, which is definitely the stronger one. To the two people still reading this rambling... Kagome and Inuyasha are (is?) the couple that I love and am devoted to in my Inuyasha fanfiction endeavors. So have no fears in that area! And even better we're moving on!

This chapter is longer than the last two, and has more explanations and something actually happens. Yes, I am proud. I know things might still be confusing, but I do know what I'm doing, so just bear with me and please keep reading. I'll try to make it worth your while. 

Um, let's see, I still don't own Inuyasha. But be prepared for the introduction of some original characters in the near future. For now though, the only thing I own is the slowly (but surely) developing plot line. Can you even own a plot line?

Chapter 1: Their Situations

Kagome awoke with a name on her lips, a name which she promptly forgot upon waking. She also awoke with a question she had never thought to ask before. If there truly were other people in the world, and there certainly must be in order to provide for her the life she lived. If there were people, no doubt nearby enough to hear her when she spoke to herself, then why was she all alone? Why was she not allowed to see them? She was lonely, among other things, and something about the whole arrangement seemed…wrong. In short, Kagome had awakened with a startling sense of being. And so, for the first time, she spoke, not to the jewel, but to the mysterious caretakers. And her voice was not the empty peaceful one that she had always used, but one that was curious, lonely, suspicious, intelligent, afraid, angry, and hopeful.

"What's going on? Why am I in here? Where am I?" panic, and confusion. "What…"

Even as she voiced these opinions, the sense of reality that had been so clear was beginning to fade. It felt, to Kagome, as if the world and her very soul were receding away from her, just close enough for her to brush against, but never close enough for her to hold. Her eyes, which had been a deep, warm brown when she had woken up faded back into a pale gray-blue. She frowned and reached for the paper; the folding would calm her. However, she found that after the first crane, the activity was just, well, boring. The senses that had awoken with her that morning didn't fade. She also realized she was still lonely. Faces accompanied this feeling, disjointed though they were. Somehow to Kagome it felt that these faces would help her to reach those memories and emotions that felt locked away. Her thoughtless smile had returned, but the furrow in her brow remained. Swarmed by thoughts she ceased her folding, and didn't notice that the jewel was warmer and brighter. 

She felt something strange, like a pulling in her chest. Walking away from the small, soft round table near her bed, she sat herself on the white carpet, unknowingly facing north. She tried to remember what had been so important just half an hour earlier. Failing this, she fell into an uneasy, dreamless nap. 

Angrily, Naraku pounded against the table. The guard shivered from his vantage point as far away from Naraku as he could be in the small room, one of several set up to survey the girl. He knew that Naraku had never been one to show a temper, meaning that to those he did show it, a painful death usually followed. 

"She…she was different for a minute too, caught it on the video. Her eyes were different, and she, seemed, well, alert. But then she seemed pretty alright. But the jewel's different. But just a little. It looks like it mighta just got brighter."

Naraku was ignoring the idiot, spare a moment to wonder why he employed idiot humans.

Inside he smiled. The part of him that was Onigumo, who he never could successfully be rid of, loved the power. Naraku was, despite his resentment of the human Onigumo who was still a part of him, inclined to agree on this point. He quite enjoyed watching the lesser beings grovel at his powerful, merciless feet. And Onigumo enjoyed rule over those to whom he had been nought but a nuisance and minor terror. Onigumo relished seeing the world through Naraku's eyes; Naraku was still the most powerful demon on the planet. 

For two hundred years he had held the planet pretty much unopposed. He had rejoiced in his sweeping, violent take over. It had been hideously easy and almost as fun as killing his two most troublesome foes. Christening the earth of the future world he would one day rule, with the blood and the pained screams of his favorite enemies had made the following carnage all the more sweet. 

 Naraku's thoughts turned from these pleasant thoughts back to the matter at hand. The girl should be a practically soulless shell! As she had been all her life, since the soul of the body that held her bound soul had died. She should have moved on too, to inhabit the next girl at all related to her by blood, one who also happened to have any miko power at all. So it had been for two centuries, since the infuriating girl had taken the jewel that was to be his victory and used it to bind her and the half-demon's souls. The sentiment of the wish, that they meet again, had made it even worse.

 Because the battle had taken place in the girl's time period, upon their deaths he had realized himself as nearly the only demon of any power. He had destroyed the well and made that world his, first through subtle politics, trickery, and assassination, then through force. He had stored the idea of their return in the back of his many minds, with the lust for Kikyo and the memories that made Onigumo cringe like a mere human. Then, 10 years ago something unthinkable had happened.

_"No, no sweetie please wake up. Kei! No! No."_

_Naraku__ looked in on the scene passively. He had no special interest in this girl after all. It was foolish to think that the girl, the one that he did have a vested interest in, would ever return. Her latest soul carrier's early death would change nothing. The girl had never been particularly skilled, as strong as she had been she never had control over her miko powers._

_"Kei!__ She's dead! She- Kei?"_

_Naraku's__ head shot up and his eyes narrowed on the room. The room which was now glowing pink. A light that was too familiar. And then eyes shot open, eyes that were no longer the bright blue they had been in life but a dull gray blue, an emptiness. And Naraku would never forget that word, that name, or the way her eyes flickered to a familiar dark brown. _

_"Inuyasha?"__  A pink jewel had shot out of her chest, landing in an outstretched palm that immediately wrapped firmly around it. Then the girl fainted. The mother was quite hysterical. With a silent command she was silenced. Naraku shot a sharp look at his companion._

_"Kill her." Four guns fired off, almost in perfect harmony, at the still girl's heart. Naraku narrowed his eyes as the bullets bounced off as sparks of pink fire._

_"Naraku-sama…"_

_"Again.__ She will die. Or all of you will die in her stead." _

And they had tried to kill her again. To no avail they had tried to kill her, the thorn that had appeared in Naraku's reign. They had used the most violent and underhanded methods available to him. They had sought out the cave that stored the dormant body of the hanyou. A dormant body which was also found to be breathing once again, to which Naraku had growled in anger and killed all the guards present at the hanyou's resting place. They had tried to enter the cave, tried to destroy it and the dormant creature within. They had brought the girl, unconscious of course, and tried again. 

 Failing this, great lengths had been taken to remove the jewel from her. All attempts had been fruitless, and more disturbing, she seemed to slip into being _her when threatened or when feeling another strong emotion. So he had built her a peaceful prison in which to live and die. They had erected a barrier around the hanyou's prison, not to hold him, for once again to Naraku's anger, they had not been able to remove the sword from him, but to slow his awakening as much as possible. It seemed to work. The specialist that Naraku had working for him all had predicted that both might awaken on the girl's 15th birthday. But she was past 16 now, and the same as ever.  _

Later Naraku had come to hope that maybe, when she died for this second time she would not come back. He was patient, and would wait for this, his ultimate victory. And as a bonus he would have the jewel. He told himself that he had not become that much weaker, to not be able to dispose of a six year old who was barely more than a soulless husk. After all, she had part of the Shikon no Tama. And so he had watched in disgust as the girl's soul had re-made the body. Where once the girl had been blue eyed and brown haired and nothing like the bitch had looked in her own life, the hair darkened, the body and the facial features grew to be one that was all too familiar. Only the eyes had, since that single second, remained gray and passive, rather than soulful brown.

He looked at the image frozen on the screen in front of him. A freeze-frame image of her face, contorted with surprise, eyes open wide. Knowing eyes.

How he hated those brown eyes. 

Inuyasha grinned to himself as he raised the now red Tetsusaiga. The first barrier had come down with a simple touch, not from his sword, but from his hand, which he had placed there on a whim, to feel the warmth radiating from it. It had been made by the jewel, or maybe by Kagome. The second barrier he knew was Naraku's. He had vague memories of repeated attempts to kill him. The first barrier was there to protect him. The second had been put in place to hold him. 

"Tetsusaiga!" He lunged for the barrier, slamming down the fang in a sweeping red arch against the blackness of Naraku's barrier. It was, surprisingly, more easy than Inu-Yasha remembered to cleave through the barrier. Quite suddenly he was standing in bright sunlight.

"Ahh. Damn it" Inuyasha grunted as he was forced to squint against the barrage of light on eyes that had not seen light for hell only knew how long. He also remembered seeing her, sitting in the sunlight on the rim of the well. Looking beautiful, almost ethereal. 

"Kagome. Where are you?" He had awakened that morning with the feeling that she needed to be rescued. Remembering how often he had needed to save the foolish, stubborn, brash girl in life, it was for this reason that he had ventured out of the cave. He had no hope of finding the others. He had left them behind in the past, when he had gone to retrieve Kagome, not realizing that he would be followed. 

He spared a momentary sorrow for them then shook the thoughts from his head. He was gratified by the almost complete return of his memories, upon his awakening that morning, or whenever it was that he had awakened. Time had been impossible to tell in the cave, and he could have been awake for minutes or hours before he ventured out.

Eyes now adjusted to the daylight he scanned the surroundings in amazement and horror. It resembled the city that had been visible from this point in Kagome's time. And yet it was infinitely different. He realized that the cave that had housed him had stood over what had once been Kagome's home. With the barriers gone the cave had partially collapsed. Next to the cave was a crater that Inuyasha recognized as the remnants of the well house. And beside that was the God Tree, standing tall and proud as it ever had. It was the only tree visible to Inuyasha. The city was not as it had once been. A concrete jungle rose from the gray streets. Smelling the air Inuyasha realized that no one had passed by his location more recently than a year. Kagome's time had been smelly, loud, and crowded. This world was smelly, and crowded, and loud in its own way. But there was also an oppressive silence that was deafening.

 Inuyasha understood. Naraku had won, and he ruled here. He had made the world after his image, grim, evil, insidious and oppressive. Somehow knowing where he needed to go, Inu-Yasha sped unwittingly toward the heart of Naraku's power. Toward an unassuming complex with no name. The towering fence was unadorned. No sign was necessary. The nature of the complex was unquestionably clear. It was Naraku's base. With a roar Inuyasha leapt up and over the fence. As he descended on the other side he held his sword extended behind him. The sound of the fang on cutting through the metal broke through the bright silence of the mid morning. As an alarm sounded nearby Inu-Yasha gave his most feral grin. Let Naraku send his worst. The bastard was going to pay. 

Naraku smiled calmly as a frantic guard informed him (with not a little fear) that they were under attack. He already knew, of course. He had more surveillance on his fortress than any knew. He was calm now, not angry as he had been ten years ago or 200 years ago. It was all falling into place. They would meet again, yes, he would allow that. And then, maybe then, they could finally be gotten rid of. He killed the frightened guard, but without any anger. It would soon end. And he would be stronger than ever. Forever. 

"Ku ku ku." He chuckled darkly. If he was lucky, It would end today. If not…well Naraku was patient. And with all the new tricks and toys at his disposal it might just be better for the hanyou to escape today. To see how he coped with the girl's death, to see if finally her soul would darken with corruption. He would see the hanyou's demise. If it took him a while, well then it would only make it that much more painful. It would be nice, for instance, to kill the girl first, to make him watch/ participate. One thing was sure for now…

"I will see your blood burned into the ground, Inuyasha…"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Um…hmmm, don't know about that. Well Naraku is twisted isn't he? 

Anyway, I think you know what I want from you. So I'll leave you to it.

Until next time!


	4. Her Legacy

Okay, hello again and thank you to my consistently wonderful reviewers. I'm glad that you're sticking with me on this. I'm also glad that things are still somewhat mysterious, they'll clear up but I just think it's more interesting this way. 

Anyway, what I really need to say this time is that this chapter might be a bit of a bore to some of you. I'm introducing a new character, and I don't know how that'll go. I've never written an original character before, but I'm giving it my best shot. I think she's turned out all right, but feel free to give me your opinion, good or bad. Believe me, the last thing I want is my OC bringing the story down, the way I know a new character can. However, for the story I have planned I'm afraid that new characters are inevitable. Also be prepared for some familiar, but probably OOC, characters. Not everyone has been oblivious to time passing, so it'd be strange for them to stay exactly the same. I will do my best to keep their changes reasonable though.

Wow, that was a whole lot of nothing. By the way, I'm sorry it's been a bit long since my last update. My family is puppy-sitting. We already have two dogs and to make a long pointless story short, if you've ever had two slightly neurotic dogs and then thrown in a golden retriever puppy, well, you'll understand how crazy my house has been. Luckily, they are all napping. The point…I'm trying to spoil you all now (and get out a lot of the story)  before I go back to school August 21st and the updates really have to slow down, so I'll try to keep the updates coming quick.

(Disclaimer) I am not Rumiko Takahashi. Sadly I am a very poor artist and a mediocre writer. I don't own Inuyasha. 

Chapter 2: Her Legacy

Mouth set grimly, she smoothed a hand over the curved edge of her weapon. Even in the early morning, the heat of the workroom was unbearable to most people. The fires were constant, the bright blue flames never allowed to die out. At their highest flame, as they were now, the flames kept the room blazing hot, the heat almost palpable as it swirled around the room. She knew it was only because the fire had been created by a kitsune that it could burn endlessly in an enclosed room without her suffocating or burning. And it was something that was a necessity to keep her weapons in order and herself hidden and unsuspected. In a detached sort of way she would have liked to meet a kitsune, or any of the demons of her family lore. Setting aside her weapon, and sweeping a rag across her dirty and now sweaty forehead, she extended one hand into the iridescent flames. The heat was almost painful there, but never quite burned her flesh, nor even her sleeve, she noted as it slid down her wrist and dipped down into the flame. She had never seen a demon like a kitsune. She had only seen the barely self aware demons that comprised the lower ranks of the army. She was pretty sure that some existed though, unless they had all been exterminated in the long ago demon purges. She knew for sure of only one higher level demon. Naraku. With a smooth, pale hand she tightened the harness of her weapon and stood, slinging the Hiraikotsu on to her back. The other hand she curled into a loose fist, prayer beads clacking together over purple cloth, around the Kazaana. With her curse spurring her on and an heirloom to fight her battle Uzura Noroibushi faced another day. 

Her days were growing regular. When she had dedicated herself, earlier that year, to fighting Naraku, for which she had at last deemed herself prepared, it had been new, exciting and frightening. But now it was familiar and routine. Which wasn't so bad. Uzura wasn't someone who disliked order. Her father had had a reputation for being unpredictable, someone who took great joy in living. She thought he had really just been afraid of dying. She was trying to accept. 

What was depressing in her private crusade was the lack of impact that she made. Her targets were small outfits of human soliders, or small weapons caches, or patrol booths near the edge of town. Logistically, they were the targets that she could attack and beat in battle. No matter how good a warrior she was, she did not yet have much actual experience, and she was still only one person. Not enough to take on Naraku's more elite forces, or more prized targets. 

Today, as everyday for the past few months, she started out early, just before dawn. Her target today was a good one, for her. Naraku was in the midst of building a small training ground. It was mid way through construction, but the force guarding it had been attacked couple days earlier by a strong force of demon renegades. New forces wouldn't be sent until later today, and the previous force was mostly injured and entirely human. It would be and easy, but strategic, hit. 

It was just as she expected it to be and infiltration was unnecessary. She attacked all out and finished the complete destruction that the demon forces had not carried out. Every building and every living creature she destroyed, as was her way. After washing her body, clothing and all in a handy stream just outside town (killing the guard to get out of course) and then reentering at a location sufficiently removed from the scene (another guard to kill) she enjoyed the bright sunlight of mid morning as it dried her. She was not too worried about encountering trouble. Naraku was not hunting for her. She was not wanted at all. And as much as it hurt she knew it wasn't just because she left no survivors, because he had other ways of finding those that he sought. It was because she was not yet (would she ever be?) a threat or even a nuisance enough for him to waste time killing her. Especially when she would be dead in a few years anyway. So she killed hundreds of his men. Naraku cared even less about his human lackeys than he did about his demon ones, which such an insignificant amount that it was laughable. 

It was a depressing fact, that she mattered little to her worst enemy, but one that she could not help. It was one that was sometimes nice too. She was allowed to live above ground she could live fairly normally, even if normally was in misery and oppression. She did not need to fear the regular purging of the underground. She had only even been to the dismal sewers a couple times, and that had been years ago. 

So Uzura tried to enjoy the filtered sunlight and walked what she considered slow reflecting on her life. It was a routine with her now. Except today her musing was interrupted by the tingling of her senses that told her she was being followed. 

Shippou moved seemingly unnoticed behind the pale short haired figure. He flitted in and out of shadow, darting from high to low vantage points with all the grace natural to a full grown kitsune, as he now was. The girl was unassuming enough, though if she knew how to use the Hirakotsu then he knew it was best not underestimate her skill as a warrior. But she moved more humbly than he had expected, coming from the family line from which she did. Shippou knew for a fact that no descendant of Miroku had ever married a plain woman. He allowed himself a smirk at the thought that they always seemed to marry strong willed women as well. Yet this girl, the only daughter of her father's side of the family, and who, in his mind should have all the calm confidence of his old, old friend Miroku and all the cat-like grace and warm strength of his equally old friend Sango, was of no great beauty that he could see and exuded no air of strength either. Her hair was short, shorter than Miroku's had been, and shorter than he had ever seen hair on a girl.  She was pale, not sun-kissed and tanned as both Sango and Miroku, had been. Paler even then Kagome (but not Inuyasha), he thought, but he pushed it away. 

Shippou was still young by youkai standards, only just entering the prime of his life. 700 years had not yet eased his sorrow. It still hurt after over half a millennium. Shippou was the last of his old band of friends, who to him still seemed so recently departed. He had watched Miroku's family line pass by him in what seemed like just a few years. It had hurt whenever one of the members of Miroku's family died, especially in the last 200 years when the curse had returned and the, up until now, male heirs died early of the curse, and the wives died of heartache, or Naraku's sporadic extermination of the underground opposition to his rule, or being sucked in with their husbands, or simply the oppressive cruel world Naraku had made for them to live in. The children had always been left to fend for themselves, bearing their curse and the burden of continuing the family line. And he had left them to do this truly alone. 

Frowning at his traitorous thoughts for bringing down what he meant to be a happy occasion, Shippou turned his mind back to the girl he was trailing. She had a small frame, and walked with her shoulders up proudly but somehow lacked in a sense of real pride. Instead she seemed detached seemed…to be stopping. Quickly, Shippou darted behind a building and concealed himself in the shadows. The next moment, a calm, carefully articulated, and commanding female voice called out to him.

"You may as well come out. I know you're there; I know you've been following me. I may look like a weak target but let me assure you that if your tracking ability is any sort of indicator, I have been followed by people who were stronger, more skilled, and more cunning than you. And they have not enjoyed being beaten into the ground by what they mistook for an innocent girl with a weapon too big for her to handle." She had not turned around and there was a hint of scorn in her voice. Her voice was heartbreakingly similar to Sango, surprisingly so. Yet the tone, the calm, amused, cockiness, that was like Miroku's, tinged with bitterness and loneliness that must have been her own. From the shadow Shippou responded,

"A little confident aren't you. Though I suppose you would be. What with your father being the idiot he was, and your mother, well I never knew her but I'm sure she was just as stubbornly idiotic. A great fighter, wasn't she? Was she from the underground like your grandmother? Though I heard Naraku wiped them out not long before you were born." The part of him that delighted in trickery enjoyed the slight widening of her eyes just before she turned to face where he had been a moment before. There had been a saying among demons a long time ago about kitsunes and travelers on the path of life, and Shippou tossed it idly in his head before giving up his foolery to say,

"Anyway, I wouldn't hurt ya. I'm Shippou. And you're Uzura, right?"

She spun with a grace that she had not demonstrated before this point, and leapt nimbly backwards swinging Hiraikotsu off its harness to a position protectively in front of her. 

Shippou held up his hands in a placating gesture as he stepped out of the concealing shadows. "I'm not here to hurt you. Relax, girl."

But what happened was quite the opposite of relaxation. "Y-you're not human!" she backed away, now looking stiff. Her knuckles were white where he could see her hands gripping Hiraikotsu like a life preserver. "A- demon? You're a demon!" And then, in an eye blink Hiraikotsu was back on her back and she stood firmly, looking only a bit nervous now, with one hand extended toward him. To most the gesture would appear to be only the foolish antics of a frightened and desperate girl. Shippou knew better. 

"Damn it, woman! You've never seen a demon!?" This fact frustrated him more than it should have. He would later reflect that it hurt him more than a little. After all, she should have been practically family too him. All her family before her had. From the time he was a small pup mourning the second devastating loss of his life, their family had cared for him, raised him. And he left for a few short years (well almost a half century but still!) and now this girl retreated in fear and threatened him with her family's most deadly, and rarely used weapon? It wasn't fair. 

"What's wrong with ya? You shouldn't just go sucking people into the Kazaana at the drop of a hat. Like I said, I'm a friend, I been a friend of your family's for ages and I don't mean to hurt you. I'm here to help." The more refined voice that Shippou had adopted when he was playfully testing her nerves had vanished, and he spoke roughly, in a boyish sort of familiarity and comradery that tempted Uzura to drop her defenses and smile back at his now expectant face. He was strange, sounding cold one minute, then cursing angrily, now friendly and open. And part of her was excited to meet a kitsune. 

"How can I know I can trust you? I mean, you look sincere enough, but you wouldn't be the first good actor I met. I've never been tricked, never been caught off guard, and I've never been beaten, so if you think…"

"Stop being so stubborn, woman. If I wanted to hurt you," and suddenly he was at her side pinning her arms down. Wincing, Uzura, spun in his arms. He was taller than she had thought, more than a head taller than her. Had she let her guard down?

Her eyes darted upwards and met his fearfully. He saw defiance in them too, and pride, but the fear struck him. She looked vulnerable and innocent, seeming to shrink as he regarded her. He released her hard, pushing her away so that she stumbled ungracefully backwards before catching her footing.

"Stupid girl. Your family was the only one I had for centuries. Their home was mine. I even made them a fire to repair their weapons after Naraku took over. It's still lit, ain't it? Didn't ya ever wonder where I went? Didn't your father ever talk of me?"

"I'm…I'm sorry. My father, he did not speak much of serious matters. He-he might have mentioned you when I was little but I-I don't remember. I'm sorry." Uzura was surprised to find herself forcing a smile at him, something she rarely did. She believed him. Heavens help her, she trusted him.

He heard her take a step toward him then another, then pass him.

"Well," she said. "Are you coming?" Shippou grinned. 

"You better have food, girl, I'm starved." Shippou's grin widened as she sighed a much burdened sigh. He was home. And she looked cute when she sighed like that. A wicked grin came to Shippou's face. After all, he was not only a kitsune, but a kitsune brought up by Miroku, and while he had not taken to the monk's more lecherous ways, Miroku had only strengthened the part of Shippou that delighted in 'harmless fun'. Especially when it involved cute girls. 

But just then an ominous sounding alarm broke through the midmorning air, over the din of machinery and hopelessness, accompanied by an earth shaking explosion. Uzura gave Shippou a wild-eyed look of disbelief as both their eyes shot to the source of the explosion. They knew where the sounds had come from, without the glance they both spared. Someone had just openly attacked Naraku's strong hold. Other people were now venturing into the street, awed and terrified at once. Shippou and Uzura slipped into the shadows a sped toward the center of the city. Shippou could tell she was preparing herself for battle. He was shocked; no one had openly attacked Naraku in a hundred years. But as they drew towards their destination, his shock grew until it nearly blinded him. The smell! Faint but…Oh, Shippou could never forget that scent. He was slowing, now trailing a bit behind the girl. It couldn't be, and yet…he couldn't deny it. 

"Inuyasha?" Shippou choked out, not noticing as the girl turned to him questioningly, a building in the distance behind her, at the center of the city, lit with flame and gun fire and demon attacks. He didn't know how it could be. Inuyasha had just attacked Naraku's center of power, 200 years after he died. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

As usual, I am ravenous (too much?) for reviews. But this time if you could do me one extra favor. I have a question about chapter length for you all. Is the chapter length right now good? Would longer chapters be a good thing or a bad one? What is too long? I really do want your opinion on this, and I will go with what you say.  It doesn't really matter to me, and I personally like long chapters so I lean towards that. Please respond to these questions, though of course feedback on this chapter is still the most important thing to me. 

And yes I am very rambly this time, and no, it probably won't be the last or the worst. 

Til next time, Thank you for reading!


	5. His Future

AN: Okay, I'm going with the wonderful Fred the Mutant Pickle on chapter lengths, they will stay around the same length, for now anyway. Well, except for this one. It was already written and I can't find a way to split it that I like, or a way to shorten it. So this one will be on the long side, but future chapters will, as far as I have planned out now, not be longer. Does that make any sense at all? Maybe. 

Now let's see, I guess I'll answer some things, in case I don't get around to making them more clear in the story. Uzura is a girl, and yes it seems like only boys can inherit the Kazaana. However, I meant to make it clear that it is the first time this has happened. There has always been a boy to inherit it when necessary. However, for some reason she is cursed. It may or may not be explained why. Also, Shippou has aged. He is in his late teens, around the age of Sesshomaru in the manga (which I have read is about 18).

A warning to those who have only seen the Cartoon Network Inuyasha. I don't know how far they have played, but this chapter may contain spoilers. 

I'm getting tired of writing Disclaimers. I think everyone knows I don't own Inuyasha. 

One last thing, A special thanks to Fred the Mutant Pickle (for always helpful questions and encouraging praise) and to Gemina (for making my day as the first person to review chapter four). Thank you also to Tiasha (I'm glad you think Shippou fits!) and Kristen Sharpe (I feel the same way about good stories and long chapters. No chapter is too long is I like the story. I hope my story is/becomes one that you eagerly follow) for liking Uzura. I rather like her too…Please review! I'm addicted to reviews!

Now let me get to the point already!

Chapter 3: His Future

"KAZE NO KIZU!"  An alarm wailed loudly in the background, but didn't cover his angry voice. Inu-Yasha swung his sword taking out another part of a wall, and several of Naraku's front guard. He hardly noticed. His anger, his pain, his confusion, all of it he poured into destroying the building that rose high and unweilding in front of him. The soliders, human and weaker levels of demon made no imprint on his mind. 

"KAZE NO KIZU!" the memories played in the back of his head and he knew that she must be near, and felt if he could only see her they would stop haunting him, playing before his eyes with every battle cry and swing of his sword. Him, discovering the Kaze no Kizu, practicing with Kirara. Discovering he could use it at will and playing with it like a child until she cried out "Osuwari!" in exasperation. Fighting Naraku. Tetsusaiga turning red. Testusaiga breaking. And so many battles besides. So many close calls. Her eyes, her voice calling out to him. And the last battle muddled but thoroughly horrifying…

_"Inu-Yasha!"___

_"Kagome!__ Bastard, get away from her! KAZE NO KIZU!"_

_"Kukukuku."_

_"KYAAA!"_

_"NARAKU!__ DIE!" _

_"NO! INU-YASHA! THE TETSUSAIGA!" _

_"Pitiful hanyou…" _

_"INUYASHA"_

_          ._

_         .    _

_       ._

_"Ahhh…" _ 

_KAGOME!_

_"Inu…Yasha…"_

_"No, no, Kagome…I didn't no, I didn't mean…KAGOME!!"_

_"Kukukukuku"_

_"the…Tetsusaiga…Inuyasha…Don't worry about me…it…going to…all right."_

_"No, no, no…ARGH!"_

_"The jewel…Inuyasha…I need the jewel…please…"_

"NARAKU! I KNOW YOU'RE THERE!" He didn't want to remember this way! Her blood scent, filling his nose. Her voice weakening. And so much was unclear. How, how could it happen?

"OUT OF MY WAY! BASTARDS!" Inuyasha growled. "KAZE NO KIZU!" he was now doing significant damage to the building. The smell of blood was thick and acrid smoke stung his sensitive nose. The alarm was still ringing through the air. And the laugh, he could still hear Naraku laughing in his mind.

"STOP LAUGHING!" He swung wildly, missing the main building but tearing across the barren earth to the fence and blasting another whole in it.

"Kukuku" The laugh was exactly as he remembered it, taunting, irritating. His rage felt as if it would explode as he spun eyes tracking to a figure perched on the roof of the building.

"NARAKU!" 

Kagome gasped in fear as the first explosion shook the ground. Her eyes widened as a pulsating noise split the air. It was the loudest noise she could clearly remember hearing. Phantoms in her mind told her it meant danger and she cringed as the earth shook again. The walls creaked and wavered as another blast sounded over the siren. Kagome ran for her bed, jewel clenched tight beneath white knuckles. She was afraid. She curled on her bed, watching the walls quiver with wide gray eyes. As a third explosion hit, dislodging a large hunk of wall, a low moan escaped her. She didn't know what to do. Her mind was so cloudy, vague memories not enough. She put her pillow over her face waiting for her world to come crashing down. 

 But something seized her, seized the empty fear gripping her confused heart. Something rose inside her and her mind screamed at her. She was Kagome Higurashi, and there were several things that she had learned to do when in danger. 

She threw the pillow to the side, eyes scanning the walls, assessing the damage to the expansive room which was her home. There was little actual structural damage, from which she inferred that the room was most likely a bit removed from wherever the brunt of the attack (if that's what it was) was being taken, no matter how loud the noises seemed to ears that were, after all, unaccustomed to any sound save her own murmurings. 

_Arrows…_

She should have arrows. 

"Shippou. Where's a bow?"

_"He can turn into a…a snail?"_

_"I'm a bow, idiot!"_

"No weapons…Sango… Miroku…Kirara…"

_"Kagome-chan!__ Hold on! Kirara, protect Kagome-chan and Shippou!"_

_"Kagome-sama! Look out!"_

"I'm alright…but just need to make sure…"

_"Kagome-chan!__ We lost him! He took the battle that way!"_

_"We must hurry Sango, Kagome-sama. Inu-Yasha seemed really angry this time."_

"Inuyasha. Where are you?"

_"I meant let me Protect you! Do you hear?"_

_"Damn it! Stay out of this Kagome, you stupid girl!"_

_"Bastards!__ Sankon Tetsuo!"_

_"KAGOME!__ HANG ON!"_

So many images becoming clearer in her mind with every passing second. How could being groped by a corrupt monk and sworn at by and irate half demon seem comforting?

"Minna-san. I want to see you again." A loud voice finally rang familiar in her ears and she grinned. She knew that voice.

"I want to see you again, Inu-Yasha." She placed a palm on a weak spot in the wall, feeling a strange heat welling within her, where, she could not tell. But the wall was glowing too now and seemed to be…weakening? Shaking. It burst outward. And for the first time in this life Kagome faced the outside world. And she was herself. She tucked the ever warm jewel in a pocket, and tilted her head, scanning her surroundings. She was in some sort of room, a room to monitor her, she realized with a twinge of annoyance. How humiliating to be watched every second of the past…how many years? And without knowing it. Then she saw the door. And beyond the door, a corridor, deserted and sterile looking. The loudest roar yet ripped through the air and Kagome gratefully turned to run in the direction of the voice. Then she processed the rage filled word he had screamed:

Naraku. And, inexplicably, Kagome found herself screaming along with him.

Inuyasha lunged for his enemy, the hatred he felt for the half-demon only intensified by the second almost death at the devious hands of the once human menace. He easily dodged the tentacles streaming toward him, his anger multiplied when he realized that it was just a decoy, again.

Kagome kept gasping in pain in his head. Brown eyes kept looking at him in shock. Blood kept flowing out of her open wounds. And in that moment it was all Inu-Yasha could think of. Only of that betrayal, so much more painful than his betrayal of Kikyo, because it had been by his claws, no shape shifters trick, that she had died. He had sought to make things right by Kikyo by killing Naraku. He had failed. 

He could never make things right with Kagome. But he would follow Naraku to hell if it would insure that she could find some measure of peace. If it would assure that her pained eyes would stop staring into his.

Meanwhile his claws ripped through the puppet easily. Swiping the wood-like tentacles clean off with his claws alone, before redrawing Tetsusaiga with a flourish a slicing the vile thing clean in half, wishing it was the real thing. He frowned at the little doll that was left behind as the illusion dissipated, the single dark hair fluttering benignly in the tumultuous air in the wake of his attack. 

He was breathing heavily, realizing that the puppet Naraku had no doubt distracted him as the real thing made his escape. He wondered if he had taken Kagome with him. He wondered why he should believe that Naraku would have Kagome alive, why he had even presumed that she was here in the first place. Never one to stop and think too deeply in the midst of battle, he abandoned his line of thinking as his blood, still feeling near boiling, demanded action. These feelings were rewarded as strange metal demons appeared in the sky. He vaguely remembered seeing something similar in Kagome's time. Felicopers? It wasn't important. These were different than what memory he had of the strange things, larger, more menacing, and equipped with two sets of whirring blades, and what he recognized as some form of canons. He leapt at one, deftly avoiding the dangerous blades while slicing neatly through the cables and rods attaching them to the body of the beasts, sending it careening down and away to erupt in a firey blast.

Just as Inuyasha was smirking over the ease of his latest victory, a deafening boom lit the air, as the felicoper canons launched a projectile at the building. As the projectile exploded and took down a large portion of the complex, Inuyasha realized, with a sick feeling, that the mechanical beasts had not (at least not entirely) been sent to kill him. 

With a scream he leapt to where the dust, smoke and flames of the explosion were clearing enough for a faint pink light to be visible amongst the rubble, and began throwing heavy pieces of steel, stone, and materials unfamiliar to him to the side. As the noise died away he heard a single cry above the noises of what had become a battlefield. It was his name, sprung from feminine familiar lips, and it was coming from the center of the destruction. 

"Kagome!" He attacked the destruction more viciously, as the pink light began to falter as she responded to him.

"What's going on Inuyasha?"

"I'm not sure. But I know it's got something to do with Naraku, that bastard's made himself some kind of fucking Emperor!" The pink light blinked out and she gasped as the shield failed for a second. The light flickered back.

"Naraku…"

"Keh! Killing him once isn't going to be enough!"

"I…Everything's still kind of fuzzy…" Inuyasha growled louder, not knowing exactly what she meant, or what was wrong with her, but knowing who was to blame. Looking up, he noticed the…things….above were circling back towards them.

"Shit! Kagome! There's these things; they shot at the building. Big metal demons…Felicopers. Can you get out at all?"

"Felicopers…Metal demons…Helicopters? Why would they…There's helicopters?"

"Who the hell cares?!"

"I…I think I can push this stuff away."

About three feet from where Inuyasha stood, where the harsh grays and silvers of what had once been a hallway were bathed in rose colored light, the stone and metal began to lift ever so slightly. But it was too slow. Inuyasha's hand tightened on Tetsusaiga.

"Get down Kagome, and don't move." He hoisted up the sword. Too slow, too slow! The helicopters were taking aim. No time to think too much. 

"Tetsusaiga!" He swung the sword gently, nevertheless parting the layers of cement and metal that had hidden her from his view. He had no time at all to prepare himself for seeing her. At that moment the metal monstrosities above them fired. Her head shot up startled. There was no time for him to pause, make sure she was the same as he remembered. There wasn't any time to remind himself to keep his distance. He was mid leap before she had even fully sat up. Before she had registered him in her mind. He was scooping her up by the time she offered a grateful smile of recognition. She was in her familiar position on his back when the pink shield that had protected her since she had first awakened in this new life, 10 years ago, vanished, completely. 

Kagome had almost been glad when a blast from who knew where took out the hallways she was running in. She had had no idea where she was going. She had been tired. And the blast had left her unharmed. She had been puzzling this when she heard him call her name and realized she had called his. And now she was on his back. It was a strange feeling. The pink bubble of protection had just died, and left her with a slight chill. Her miko powers were now severly depleted. At the same time, something about being so near to him, touching him, brought a warmth that surprised her for two reasons. One was that it was the first time, in this life time, that she had ever been touched. Secondly, it was him and touching him had always been fulfilling, a sense made stronger by their long separation. 

Unfortunately, all these warm and fuzzy feelings were dampened by the fact that two large missile-like projectiles were shooting straight toward them, at a speed she was unsure Inuyasha could surpass.  He was indeed, already moving, but not fast enough, and now the helicopters above, were firing more shots, too many. She held fast to Inuyasha's shoulders as he dodged one…two of the missiles or bullets (she wasn't sure which they were). The heat was intense, walls of flame erupting where the things hit ground. 

"KYAA!" 

Uzura had been content to sit in silence as the kitsune beside her gasped and shook, from what she presumed was shock. He could obviously see quite clearly what was going on below and from the range of emotion racking his entire body, it was something even more important than she knew. Having no demon senses, she was aware of none of the more intimate details of the goings on below, but had been awed to watch the red clad demon man take down a Dark Bird as easily as if it were a blue bird. His roars of rage had astonished her, and the destruction had thrilled her. But she was confused. The fox seemed to know the person attacking the building and yet he sat by as the demon fought alone. Was it some type of respectfulness for demon pride? When the Dark Birds opened a barrage on a point below, unclear to her, that was no doubt the location of the mysterious attacker, she found her arm shaking the shoulder of her companion. This demon boy, he was strong! She had never seen anyone hurt Naraku so much. He couldn't die.

"Shippou! There's no way that he can avoid it all. Shouldn't we…" he cut her off by leaping away with as a female voice screamed. 

"KITSUNE BI!" his voice, gentle and youthfully friendly before, was a roar. Uzura was astonished to see a tiny glimmering line of tears trail after his lithe form. There was something about him, or them, if that had truly been a female scream she heard. His face… unnaturally lined, jaw clenched, eyes wide. And now the tears. It was all so strange. 

Luckily, she was nothing if not a warrior, and leapt into battle, using her unnatural (for a human) grace (and some handily placed curved blades) to gain height off of a neighboring building. She felt herself warming as no other battle had ever managed to heat her blood.  After all, how long had she dreamt of this? Dealing a serious blow to Naraku instead of waiting idly until the curse took her life, causing trivial damage in the meantime? 

"HIRAIKOTSU!" the kitsune was focusing his fire on the shots raining down on the figures that she could now make out below. He was knocking them off course, many of them exploding in mid air, others thrown off course to, perhaps not by accident, take out the so far less damaged portions of the building. Which, by all logic left her to take out the Birds. She hit the nearest one on her first throw. Hirakotsu flew easily directly through the thing's body, decapitating the driver and sending the thing careening downwards. The second banked left hard just in time to avoid Hiraikotsu on its return path. Uzura grinned and caught her weapon in mid leap backwards, where she used a blade that she had hooked to the heal of her uniform (her kimono had been shed on the shadowy roof where she and Shippou had been perched before) to gain a vertical foothold. 

"HIRAIKOTSU!" The second shot missed too, but Uzura, anticipating this possibility, threw herself onto the front of the Dark Bird. Two blades extending over her wrists and the top of her hands sank into the windshield. She grinned at the shocked looking lizard youkai and humans inside, this time feeling nothing but grim battle joy as she saw her third and fourth high level youkai. Wrist blades cutting easily through the glass, she leapt nimbly inside.

"Servants of Naraku. It is time for you to die." She laughed as the two lizard creatures lunged for her, tongues out and bubbling with a strong acid. She cut off their tongues with a simple flick of her wrists. The human stopped in mid attack and backed off in search of a weapon. She wasn't surprised. Naraku's human supporters notoriously lacked loyalty, particularly in the face of death. She ignored the idiot and turned her blades instead on the helicopter's controls, slicing quickly through them and then launching herself back out of the body and into the air. An electrical explosion rocked the Bird then and Uzura watched the eyes of the human widen through the smoke and bright flames consuming the vessel as its rotors died and it hung in the air for a moment before plummeting in a great fiery, smoking spiral. It would have been kinder to kill him out right. Uzura didn't care. She offered no sympathy or mercy to those who died by her hand in the service of the enemy.

In the heat of battle Uzura had forgotten about the kitsune and about the strange demon and his possible companion. But now, as her blood cooled and she looked in detached satisfaction over the burning wreckage, she remembered and sought them out. The kitsune had come to rest on the ground below. In a moment she rejoined him, pulling the blades from her heals and retracting her wrist blades and looking much less menacing for it. Shippou looked at her oddly then looked away from her.

"You weren't joking earlier. I wouldn't have enjoyed fighting you." Uzura thought it was meant to be a joke but was unsure. His face was still serious, and he was anxiously scanning the surrounding area.

"Where the hell…" He smiled a bit wistfully, his features finally softening.  She decided it was safe to ask.

"Who are they Shippou? You know them? Are they from the demon front of opposisition?"

"No." He walked toward the street, where bright sunlight was visible, beyond the smoke and dark energy that shadowed the battlefield. Stepping into the street she caught only a glimpse of a figure moving rapidly away.

"He doesn't recognize it." He looked at her. "We need to follow them. Get on my back, it'll be faster." She looked at him warily and he sighed. 

"Look we're going to lose them. He'll be after them, sending his worst too. So just stop bein' so damn stubborn and get on." She complied. Realizing that with her hand on his shoulders it would be easy to deploy her wrist blades and slit his throat, should he prove untrustworthy. However, though prepared to kill she wasn't quite prepared when he grasped under her knees and took off after what now looked to her like little more than a red speck. She also wasn't prepared for him to scream out,

"OI! INUYASHA!" it was fortunate for Shippou's neck that she was adept at keeping her head in alarming situations, as it was she hissed out a admonition.

"Shippou, quiet. You'll draw attention." That was the first rule of taking on Naraku. Don't draw too much attention to yourself.

"Tch. He's got other stuff ta deal with right now. INUYASHA! OI! STOP YOU JERK!"

he smiled at Uzura.

"That's what I used to call him. I dunno, but I thought maybe it could jog his memory."

"He doesn't remember you?"

"He didn't get a clear look at me. Or a clear scent. Plus I haven't seen him since I was a kit."

"Why?" She found that she really wanted to know. 

"It's a long story. Basically because he jumped forward in time 500 years from when I knew him and got himself killed 200 years ago." He sighed. "That was a bad explanation. But it's true, anyway. INUYASHA! KAGOME!" 

"Kagome…she's the other one…dog demons? Are the dog demons?"

"He's a hanyou. Not her though. She's a human. I don't know how she's come to be here. She died with him. And she can't be a reincarnation. She'd smell at least a little different, but she doesn't really. Not her smell at least. She doesn't have the smell of her family, or her shampoo or any of that extra stuff actually. GAH! I can't believe he had her!" Uzura guessed that the last 'he' was not the one they were following but Naraku. The rest of what he said made very little sense to her. She disregarded it for the time, choosing instead to voice a slight concern. 

"Are you going to be able to catch them?" His shoulders tensed. Her concern was well placed. It had initially seemed like they were gaining on the pair in front of them but now the distance looked like it was neither decreasing nor (thankfully) increasing significantly.

"No. He always was faster than you would think, him being a hanyou and all." 

"Then…"

"I know…there has to be someway to make him…Hiraikotsu! Throw Hiraikotsu!"

"Eh…what?" the fox wanted her to attack them? 

"He'll recognize it! You can throw it from here right?"

"Of course I can. But I thought you wanted him to stop! If he thinks we're attacking don't you think-"

"No! Don't throw to hit! I said earlier that your ancestors and me knew each other right? Well they knew him too! He'll recognize the weapon and he must at least kind of recognize me…but….well he always was an idiot.  At the very least he'll stop to fight and we'll be able to talk to Kagome. She's really smart!" He sounded almost childish when he spoke of the girl and against her better judgement (which told her that possibly drawing the demon she had just seen destroy a small army and a the strongest of strong hold into battle was a bad idea) she found his innocent (how could he still be innocent in Naraku's kingdom?) hope contagious. 

"Alright." She took stock of her position. "I need to be able to use both my hands."

"I won't let you fall. Don't worry about that!"

"Okay then. Well…" She kept one arm around his neck as she unhitched Hiraikotsu from her back. "Lower your head, yeah, and- HIRAIKOTSU!"

 Inuyasha was not yet close to tired. He had been grimly preparing to take on two more of those helicopters while avoiding their fire all with a very tired Kagome on his back. But they had been helped by a strangely familiar kitsune and a girl with a familiar weapon. But how could it be? He had no idea how long he had been "dead" this time, but he knew that the taijiya, at least, should be dead. It was the future of Kagome's time. The kitsune…No, he wouldn't let himself hope it was Shippou. Naraku…Naraku wouldn't have let the kit live. And so it must just be his nose tricking him that the fox smelled so wonderfully familiar. That the voice that called out from behind as he fled in the direction of Kagome's ruined home was not really the little kit Inuyasha had known and been irritated by, the little kit he had protected. He was glad Kagome couldn't hear. 

"INUYASHA! OI! STOP YOU JERK!" Kagome stirred slightly in her half-sleep. 

"Did you hear something Inuyasha? Someone calling you? It…sounded…familiar." She murmured sleepily.

"Keh. Just someone yelling, its nothing."

"Hmm…'K…Where are we going."

"To-" how could he tell her that they were going to the partially collapsed cave that stood over what had once been her home. He would tell her later. "Someplace I think'll be safe." Truthfully, he hated to run at all. But Kagome was exhausted, and he had no idea what they would be facing, what resources Naraku now had at his disposal

"I…I feel safe Inuyasha." She sighed. "Like feeling safe before wasn't really…real. What's happened Inuyasha? I feel…strange" A soft, cotented sort of noise followed her sleep slurred speech.

"Keh" But inside he felt something twist his stomach, pierce his heart. She didn't remember. She didn't…

_"AHH…"_

No, no…

_"Inu…Yasha"_

No…

_"No, no. Kagome…I didn't-"_

"HIRAIKOTSU!" Thankful for the diversion Inuyasha leapt sideways (to a surprised squeak from Kagome) and spun, eyes wide.  His pursuers took the opportunity to move in. The weapon hadn't been meant to hit. Inuyasha knew it hadn't been meant to hit. And as the pair came into clear view he found himself staring. The auburn hair, still tied in that ridiculous high ponytail. The face, the scent…A young kitsune all grown up. He heard Kagome gasp and felt her become fully awake.

"No way…"

"INUYASHA! KAGOME!"

"Shippou." he heard Kagome gasp again as he voiced the one word that had consumed each of their minds. Every second the kit drew closer and every second Inuyasha was more sure it was him. Slight change in scent; that came with age. And the other smells on him, unfamiliar smells of this world. But he couldn't doubt it any more. This wasn't a trap, wasn't a trick of his senses.  Shippou had stopped running now. He was right in front of them, setting down the girl with him, who looked and smelled a bit familiar but was neither Sango nor Miroku and therefore unimportant right now, and he was taking careful steps toward them, eyes wide.

"Inuyasha…Kagome…Is-how did you-" And then he choked and his eyes welled with tears that Inuyasha could see hurt him to shed. Had the kit been left alone? Suffered the same hard, lonely child hood as him? Kagome was crying too. She pushed herself off of his back, stumbling a bit in her hurry. Shippou was something unexpected, a familiar, friendly presence in a world where they thought only they remained. And something about him made it seem like such a long time since they had dwelled in the world.

"SHIPPOU-CHAN!" she ran at him. Hugged him, a bit awkwardly because he was now so much taller than her. She laughed through her tears as _he_ was the one to lift_ her_ up. 

"KAGOME! I thought…you and him…" the kit grinned over at Inuyasha, through still teary eyes (he hated that expression) and the older demon felt himself fall back from his shock. He recovered though, and tore his eyes from the fox in irritation.

"Keh. Like I'd let myself be killed by that bastard." And somehow suddenly, Naraku seemed far away. For the first time since he had begun to wake, 10 years ago, Inuyasha wasn't haunted by any of his memories. After all, Kagome was alive. Not dead. Not betrayed, or pained. Finally his blood began to calm. And in the calm, he couldn't help but wonder…What would this world hold for him? He looked over at Kagome and felt the familiar gut wrenching guilt. Whatever it was it wasn't a happy ending. That chance had died…with her. Whether she was alive again or not. Again, he promised that he would not fail this time. Naraku would die by his claws. Then a pink light exploded from Inuyasha and everything went dark.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Wooo. I liked that chapter, if you don't mind me saying so. Ah…Inuyasha angst. Was he OOC? Oh well, I still like it. Do you? 

Please review! 


	6. Them Again

Okay everyone, here we go. If I sound a little upset, well, I guess I'm kind of disappointed that my story, which at first delighted me with reviews, is now receiving less than 5 a chapter.  However I feel stupid being upset, and, truthfully, the reviews I have received have been so wonderful and motivating that it almost makes up for it. And I'm definitely not mad. I'm also definitely not going to quit on this story. That said, please review! If only so I know people are reading this! 

Anyway, enough desperation. Thank you to Kristen Sharp and Moonlight Storm for reviewing last chapter. 

I'm tired of trying to be clever so I'll just say as a Disclaimer, that I don't own Inuyasha. 

Now on with the show!

Chapter 4: Them Again

Kagome and Shippou's reunion was interrupted when a bright pink light and a dull thud alerted them to the fact that Inuyasha had just collapsed. Kagome yelped and ran hastily to the hanyou's side. Had he been hurt more than he had let on? He hadn't seemed wounded.

"Inuyasha! Inuyasha, wake up!" she shook his shoulder gently but with urgency. She searched his clothing with her eyes and fingers for any trace of blood from a wound she had not noticed. Nothing. But then…there! Kagome felt a small warm lump beneath his haori. In her mind things were clicking into place. She smoothed a finger over the jewel in her pocket. Pink light…reaching into his shirt carefully and found herself rewarded with a pink jewel that looked identical to the one in her pocket.  How could she have missed it before?  Her miko senses should have immediately picked up the jewel in his chest. Had hers been inside her? What was the meaning of the jewel halves? When Shippou spoke she jumped, having nearly forgotten anyone was there.

"Kagome? Is he…" his voice was unsure.

"He's alright Shippou-chan. I don't really understand what happened, but he's just unconscious. He had a half of the Shikon no Tama in him. It came out. I don't…really understand this. Maybe Kaede-bachan…" her voice broke off and she frowned. From what she had seen of this world there would be no Kaede here. "Shippou-chan?"

"Hn?"

"How long...What year- When are we?"

"It's been 200 years Kagome…since you and Inuyasha d-died in your time."

"Oh. My time…" Kagome's voice was small and she cursed it for that. 200 years. From her time. She didn't know how, but Shippou-chan wouldn't lie. And that meant…Mama, Souta, Grandpa, Miroku, Sango… She sent a searching look up from her position kneeling with Inuyasha's head pillowed on her lap to the girl who was Shippou's companion.

"Who are you?" she smiled at the thought of her being Shippou-chan's girlfriend and switched her gaze to the kitsune with a wide smile."Girlfriend?" both of the parties in question blushed. The girl recovered quicker and while Shippou stammered she said,

"No. I just met him today. But he says he is an old friend of the family. I am Noroibushi Uzura. You can call me Uzura. Most people do." Kagome wasn't surprised. With a last name that meant cursed warrior…

"Thank you Uzura-san" she studied the girl's face closer, though she could tell that it made her uncomfortable. She was definitely familiar. 

Shippou, collecting his thoughts, answered her unasked question. "She's a decendant of them Kagome. Of Sango and Miroku. That's why she has Hiraikotsu and Kazaana. He pointed Uzura's right hand, which she hastily tried to hide.

"She has Kazaana…and Hiraikotsu too. She must be a good fighter." Kagome wrinkled her nose. "She isn't a hentai is she?" Shippou let out a bark of laughter as Uzura's jaw dropped.

"I-I-" her face was fiercely red and she glared at Shipppou "It isn't funny! Why does she think I'm a pervert?" she hissed. Shippou only laughed harder, joined by Kagome.

"I'm sorry Uzura-san. It's just…If you're a descendant of Miroku…it just seems natural."

She let out an undignified snort to which Inuyasha, who no one had realized was awake, smirked and gave a snort of his own. Kagome blushed. 

"You're awake! I was worried!" she scolded. He tried to look unconcerned and failed miserably. He didn't move his head from her lap. 

"Keh! Well you didn't sound that concerned, laughing about that pervert's descendant!" Inuyasha finally sat up, seemingly ignoring Kagome as she hung anxiously at his side. Taking in their surroundings, he distracted himself from her by yelling at Shippou. 

"Oi! Shippou! Why are we just hanging around in the damn street! Stupid kit!"

"Hey! I'm not the one who fainted, dog boy!" The kit was glad that he had a diversion from his thoughts. He didn't want to cry in front of them anymore. And fighting with Inuyasha had been one of the joys of his childhood.

"I didn't faint! I'll kill you!"

"GAH! Stop! I could take you Inuyasha!"

*BONK*

"OW! Damn it Inuyasha!"

Kagome sighed. Hooking her arm around Uzura's, who was looking shocked and confused at the strange show of male immaturity, she chose to walk in the direction they had been heading before Inuyasha's collapse. 

"Come on Uzura-chan. They always fought like kids. I would have hoped that Shippou at least would have grown out of it." She either ignored or was oblivious to the other girl's cautious, slightly uncomfortable look as Kagome failed to release her arm. "So do you have a home nearby where we might stay for the night? It's been a bit of a tiring day for me."

"Ah…yes…I live in the city...um the other way though" Kagome smiled and wheeled them around, pointedly ignoring Inuyasha and Shippou.

"Kagome!"

"Keh! Still can't fight your own battles? What kind of demon are you?"

"I don't need her to rescue me from YOU, you jerk! I just think it'd be funny to see you get sat!"

"Why You…"

*BONK*

"Damn it Inuyasha! I'm not a kid!" he struck out with his own fist.

*BONK*

"Why you-"

*BONK*

Kagome sighed

"Inuyasha…" the hanyou froze and narrowed his eyes.

"Bitch you better not be-" She wouldn't, would she? 

"Osuwari!" He slammed into the ground and Shippou stepped on his head on his way to join the girls.

"I missed that so much!" Kagome caught the sadness that flashed across his eyes before the laughing grin and was suddenly struck by how it must have been for him.

"Shippou-chan" the ear tips poking through his thick red hair twitched. She wished it was possible for her to hold him. She wished he hadn't grown up with out her.

Uzura was experiencing a mix of emotions. These people…demons, strange reborn girls, and half demons…And the sense of them. They fought, physically and verbally. She eyed the half demon suspiciously. Whatever the girl had done to him was wearing off and he was now spitting obscenities at her from his half-prostrate position in the concrete.

"-you bitch! In the middle of the damn street! Do you know what it feels like to be slammed into three feet of solid concrete?" 

Uzura's eyes slid to the girl, who was developing a twitch in her left eye. The girl was strange. Very emotional, and these emotions were unpredictable to Uzura, they fluctuated wildly. She was unforgivably friendly. How could she expect to face Naraku with her emotions so freely flowing, and so much trust in her? Trust that Uzura was sure she could sense, as she sensed anything else. Calling her Uzura-_chan! And meaning it, really meaning that level of intimacy and endearment. _

No one since her parents had been so, not informal because few people were offered her respectful formality, but using endearments?- dare she imagine friendship?- was something that she was completely at a loss to respond to.  She decided to offer a tentative smile.

"Ah…" Kagome tore her eyes from her glaring contest with the white haired boy and smiled at her apologetically.

"I'm sorry Uzura-chan. You were going to take us to your home! Inuyasha's just such a jerk!"

"Keh. Bitch."

"Osuwari."  Kagome said, then. "Let's go. You better hurry up Inuyasha; you'll get left behind."

"ARGH!" he tore his head out of the cement, and held his cursed down to a disgruntled muttering as Kagome led the girl in the direction indicated, Shippou trotting up to walk in step with them. For all that Uzura could tell she was oblivious to the young demon man still prying himself angrily out of the small crater her had made in the street.

"Should we really just…" Uzura began. It was so strange. She was sure they were friends. In fact, when she had seen the girl's dismay over the hanyou's condition she was sure they were lovers of some kind, mates even. But now the girl responded flippantly, as if nothing could be more normal than fighting an evil dictator and then face planting one's friend into the ground.

"Leave him? Yeah. He'll catch up in a second anyway."

"Yeah. And he's got such a hard head that it can't possibly hurt him too much." Shippou laughed too, and Uzura watched he and the girl share a mischievous smile.

True to her words though, the demon appeared as if out of nowhere at that moment, knocking the fox demon around the head. This time however, the girl's scowl collapsed in favor of an exasperated smile.

"Inuyasha…" but her voice was only slightly scolding. "Uzura-chan has been nice enough to let us stay at her home for tonight. I didn't know if we should chance my house tonight. I don't know if it'll still be there. The city is so different."

"Yeah. That bastard…" The girl, Kagome, patted his arm reassuringly. He shot her a look that Uzura could not interpret. She looked at Kagome's face but the other girl had apparently missed it, looking at the sky in thoughtful sadness.

"It's been so long Inuyasha. The sky, even the sky is different from my memories."  The look was on his face again as he regarded her profile, staring into the sunny sky. What was it? 

"Keh. We shouldn't be lagging out here anyway." Uzura frowned at that. He was the one who had collapsed and then had engaged the kitsune in a loud, childish brawl in the middle of the streets. She spoke calmly, but indignantly. She was proud and his unforgivable rudeness to the first person ever to extend unwarranted friendship irked her.

"I'm sure if someone was going to attack us they would have during the many other opportunities we have given them. It's not as though some of us have exactly been acting covert." She watched his scowl deepen as he regarded her.

"Listen, bitch," Inuyasha stalked forward menacingly. She stood her ground, but felt her heart speed up. She realized her position. He was the strongest creature she had ever met, face to face. He was angry and seemed quite violent. Even one of those hits to the head…how much would it hurt her? Why had she spoken so rashly…She resisted the urge to hide behind the girl beside her, who was now alternately regarding her curiously and glaring at the hanyou. That wouldn't do. She had been raised a warrior. She would fight him if need be. She would lose, she knew, but she would fight. Maybe the girl would stop him, force him to the ground again. Maybe he meant only to threaten, perhaps injure her. It wasn't the point what would happen. She would not hide. But as all these thoughts and more raced around in her head, the scowl on the hanyou faded and he frowned.

"Keh. Let's just go." He grabbed Kagome's arm. "Oi, get on. Shippou you carry the other one."

"Who made you the boss?" But grinning good naturedly, he motioned Uzura over. Inuyasha already had Kagome on his back, and was looking forward in what to Uzura looked like stubborn impatience. The whole thing was so confusing! Later she would tell herself that that was why she readily climbed onto the kitsune's back for the second time that day.

Realizing that they were waiting for her to direct them, she cleared her throat slightly, "It's straight, turn left in front of Naraku's stronghold, then right at the next street, then left two streets later, then straight. It's near the other edge of town. The last right and I'll have to guide you from there." She was proud that her voice didn't shake.  
  


"Good enough. Shippou, let's go. Don't fall behind either, brat."

"Jerk." Shippou muttered. The hanyou yelled back something but Uzura didn't catch it because Shippou had turned to her with something that looked like exasperation. 

"You were afraid?" Uzura felt a blush sweep across her face.

"I wasn't-"

"You took out two of those blasted metal demons and you were afraid of Inuyasha?" he sighed. "You really haven't dealt with many demons have you? How is that possible?"

"How did you know? That I was…"

"Scared? Well it was pretty obvious." She glared indignantly and he sighed again. "To a demon I mean. The smell is pretty recognizable. Plus there's the way your breathing sped up." Beneath her fingers his shoulders shrugged. "To a human it probably wouldn't be noticeable. Well, 'cept to Kagome. But she's special."

"Special?" He was throwing in too much information.

"She's a miko, a strong one too." Uzura's eyes widened. She knew of mikos. They were getting rarer each time Naraku engaged in one of his purges, but still known and respected. "I don't know if that's why she woulda noticed. She just knows things like that, she knows about people. Don't know how. I'm not sure if it's part of her being a miko or not."

"Really?" Uzura was surprised. "A miko? But it seemed like she…With the hanyou that is…" 

"Oh, yeah, course she does. But what's that got to do with anything?"

"I thought mikos disliked demons. She doesn't worry about becoming unpure?" She was feeling more comfortable with the conversation. Miko lore was something that had always interested her and she had even spoken to one a few years back. There was a loud snort from hanyou in question and she glanced at the couple slightly ahead. 

"Er, he can hear me?"

"Yeah. So really, how is it that you've never met any youkai?" 

"I've met youkai! Just not any highly evolved youkai before. The one's I've met, they weren't much more than animals.  You were the first demon I ever met that spoke to me, in my memory at least." 

"Hmph. That's a damn shame. You'd think a girl like you would have more experience. But ya did alright anyways, back in there. So I think you'll handle it okay."

"Handle what?" What was he getting at? His voice was off hand, as if they were old friends making small talk. He ignored her interruption.

"You just gotta learn who's an enemy and who's not. And Inuyasha, while most definitely a loud-mouthed, reckless, sometimes abusive, violent, selfish-"

"OI! DO YOU WANT ME TO COME BACK THERE SHIPPOU?! GET TO THE DAMN POINT!"

"-Rude, jerk, he is definitely not a real danger. First, he doesn't hurt humans, seriously at least. Second, he doesn't hurt girls. Third, you guys have got the same enemy, and since we'll all be working together, he knows he has to tolerate you at least." 

"What?" This threw her. She was expected to fight with them? That couldn't be. She had just met them. And she had already insulted the hanyou. There was no way that she would be allowed to join with them. She tried to tell the kitsune as much, "I don't-"

"Fourth, I know you don't understand all of this, and we'll explain it at your home, but we all knew your ancestors. We loved them, (another snort up ahead) and you don't realize it but you have a lot of them in you, so he wouldn't hurt you because of that too."

Uzura didn't know what to say. She was shocked and curious. Wary and yet wanted to trust these strangers. She was, if nothing else, a smart and capable warrior, she knew after seeing them fight that they were a powerful group who it would be prudent to work with. With them what damage could she cause Naraku before her death? Certainly more than she could ever hope to accomplish without them. A part of her also knew she had been lonely, for a long time. 

"I …"

Kagome felt warm on his back and it was a calming warm, that spread through his whole body. She was tired and near sleep. He didn't want to disturb her. But he couldn't hold back the angry, indignant, snort when her hear that girl's idiotic comment. Unpure indeed! Kagome stirred, and her hands squeezed his shoulders.

"What's the matter Inuyasha?" 

"Keh, it's nothing. That little bitch just asked Shippou if you worry about being unpure (the word dripped with disdain) from…being friends with me." He cursed himself for telling her that. He didn't need her reassurance. He didn't want it. He didn't…deserve it. 

"She hasn't met many demons I don't think. She was afraid wasn't she? When you started to yell at her?" Kagome yawned and Inuyasha felt guilty for keeping her awake. "I'm pretty sure that was it, even though I'm not as good at you at knowing that sort of thing of course."

"Yeah, she was scared. Idiot." Her hands squeezed tighter for a moment then relaxed again, reassuring him. He realized he was leaving himself too open to her and mentally berated himself. She didn't say anymore, and he wondered if she had noticed his sudden discomfort. It was most likely. She was good at reading things like that.

It was silent for only a second until Inuyasha found himself once more forced to react to the conversation behind him.

"OI! DO YOU WANT ME TO COME BACK THERE SHIPPOU?! GET TO THE DAMN POINT!"  Kagome moaned softly.

"Mou, Inuyasha. So loud. What'd he do now?" Despite the complaint and petulant tone of her voice, he could tell that she was smiling.

"Nothing. Just being a brat." Truthfully he was glad to see the kit, all grown up and seemingly a capable youkai. He also realized that the kit was standing up for him and he was remotely touched, though he would never admit it. 

"Hmm" Kagome murmured. "He grew up to be so tall." She giggled softly. "Still cute though. I can still see my Shippou-chan."  If the possessive bothered Inuyasha he made no indication to himself or her. They were silent for a while longer, except when Inuyasha made another sound of indignation in response to something being discussed ahead. And when they neared the point where the monk's descendant's instructions ended.

"We're almost there. OI SHIPPOU! Bring that girl up here!" Privately Inuyasha was glad that he had just made the second left turn and could see the end of the city, which meant it wouldn't be much longer. She was too close, too soft. And too caring.

"Sheesh, you sure are loud, Inuyasha. Have you been paying attention at all? We're in a city ya know, and you're drawing attention!"

"Keh, let 'em come!"  Kagome made some small sound of exasperation. She was so tired. Was something wrong with her? Had Naraku done something to her?

"Turn here." The not quite familiar voice thankfully pulled him out of quickly darkening thoughts. He'd check on Kagome when they got to this girl's house. In the meantime…

"Where?" He looked at where Shippou was turning. It was a tiny street, if it could even be called a street. It was narrow and dirty looking. Here on the edge of the city, the activity was slightly more noticeable. Here and there he even heard snatches of children laughing. The machine sound was also quite loud, and the air was dirtier. He tossed a glance at the girl. She lived here? Alone? He had expected…well, better of her. Noticing his look she frowned.

"I can't exactly afford to live anywhere else. And…it used to be nicer around here…before…people think it's a cursed place so you don't get many good folk around here." A moment later Inuyasha understood and felt slight guilt, he felt Kagome stiffen a bit, and knew she recognized it too.

A large crater broke up the crowded urban sprawl of the rest of the area. He noticed that the houses nearest the crater had clearly not been lived in since it formed. Well, no, that wasn't quite true. One house, was lived in. It was small and shabby but looked as if it had once been quite nice as, Inuyasha noted, the other abandoned houses had been. It was made of stone rather than the wood Inuyasha was used to, making it seem to him as if it had once been a small castle…or something. However, the bricks were chipped and the house was dirty and vandalized. The girl's emotions were unreadable. 

Landing, he privately marveled at how Kagome managed to look so regal, and so gentle at the same time. He also knew she was exhausted, which again sent a shiver of worry and anger through him. 

"Thank you Uzura-chan. For sharing your home with us." Inuyasha watched the girl offer a tentative smile. Kagome's smile widened at this. Her ability to form instant friendship, was a notable trait, one that always surprised him, one who definitely did not possess such an ability.

Inside the house was better than it had looked from outside. It was immaculately clean and furnished with worn but fine quality furniture.  There were five rooms, but one…

"Oi? What's that room?" Inuyasha looked suspiciously at a heavy door to the right. Uzura gave him an odd look, as if she didn't know what to make of his question. He thought it was obvious and found this a bit irritating. Did the girl have any common sense at all?

"It's a work room." She replied, still looking suspicious. "The fire has to be kept running all the time. It's very hot to people other than myself but not noticeable and requires no chimney." Shippou beamed.

"Because it's a fox fire!" he said proudly. Kagome smiled at him. 

"You've gotten so strong Shippou-chan!  I saw you fighting, you were good." Shippou's grin widened under the praise. Inuyasha felt a familiar irritation and smacked the kitsune, disliking that his hand had to aim upwards to do so.

"Stupid brat, stop sucking up." Inuyasha glared at the kitsune, not realizing that the possessiveness he had pushed out of his voice still shone from his eyes. "Oi, wench, weren't you going to sleep or something?"

"Yes. Uzura-chan, is there somewhere I can sleep?" Inuyasha doubted that the girl had anything in the way of a spare bed. She didn't even have a couch. So he was mildly surprised (and annoyed to be so) when she replied,

"I have a couple extra futons." She smiled warmly at Kagome, then warily at Inuyasha. "They, aren't in the best of condition. You can sleep on mine for now, it's in that room over there." Kagome was followed to the room by Inuyasha. He had no intention of letting her sleep in this unprotected house without protection. After all, they were now in Naraku's world. Kagome smiled at him, but made no protest when he settled himself against the wall. He figured that it was because she was tired. Hopefully, she would be back to normal in the morning. The looks he had seen chasing across her face…

"Oi." She looked at him bemusedly, from the futon, where she had already been settling down to sleep. 

"Is something wrong?" she was clearly hanging just on the edge of conciousness.

"Why are you so tired? Is something wrong with you?" Subtlety had never been his strong suit, nor had it ever been a skill he wished to cultivate. It was something he associated with Naraku and his mind games and therefore disliked imploying. 

"I don't know. I don't think so." At the look of angry impatience and veiled concern on his face she elaborated. "I think that…Where ever I was, I didn't move around much. I was kind of lost Inuyasha, I don't know, and there's still…" She shook her head in a way he took as meaning to clear it. "I used a lot of miko power too, and I think the combination has just exhausted my body. After a good sleep I should be fine." 

Satisfied, he made a sort of grunt, closing the conversation. He also closed his eyes, though Kagome was sure he had no intention of sleeping.  She hoped he would anyway. He had to be tired too. It was a relief that he had not pressed her on the circumstances of her imprisonment. Although she knew that she had not been able to do anything during her stay in what she now knew as the stronghold of her worst enemy, it brought a range of emotions. She felt inexplicably guilty, for not being able, or truly having any great desire for answers or even to recover her own soul, She felt sadness when she realized that the second set of memories that had occasionally haunted her were the memories of a girl who's body Kagome had taken when she died, and wondered what Inuyasha would think of that. Accompanying that was the question of whether she was the same person. It certainly felt as though she was, but she wondered if she had changed. Inuyasha told a lot by scent, had hers changed? Kagome was also trying to adjust to the fact that it was 200 years after her time, which meant that nearly everyone she had ever known was dead. And even though Shippou was alive she was struggling with how to treat him. He had lived a multiple human lives worth of time without her and part of her still looked at him and saw a little boy who was possibly the closest to a son she would ever have.

On top of all of this and more, Kagome was acutely embarrassed, shamed even, to think that she had done something wrong in what ever she did to the Shikon no Tama (if that was even what had really happened) to bring her back together with Inuyasha 200 years after their death. She wanted to know how they died, she wanted to know why she had been stuck in that strange in-between existence that she had been in for who knew how long. She wanted to know why the jewel didn't disappear if she really had used it to preserve her and Inuyasha. She wanted to know a very large number of things. But her body had not moved more than a few meters at a time and had not felt fear or adrenaline or miko power for a very long while. So Kagome did the only thing she could and fell into a deep, if restless, sleep. 

When she awoke it was dusk, and she once again had a gasp and his name on her lips. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

How was that? Now come on, review! You know you want to! 

That said, Wish me luck. Tomorrow I go back for my second year at college! I'll try to update asap, but reviews are always helpful. 


	7. Her Memories

Hello hello my wonderful readers. I'm so sorry that it's been so long since an update, though selfish as it may be I hope that you did care/ get impatient. Now since I'm writing these Author Notes instead of writing an assignment for Linguistics, which is what my roommates think I'm doing, I can't say much. Since its mostly meaningless chatter, I'm sure it won't matter. This is already more time than I should have spent. Remember that I don't own Inuyasha so that I can stop writing pointless disclaimers. I live in a run down co-op and look for change in pay phones. Would you really want to sue me? 

Anyway, lets get own with it. You read. I have to go back to education…it's just not quite as fun.

Chapter 5: Her Memories

In the quiet dimness of an unfamiliar place, Kagome gathered her bearings, the name just fallen, the gasp faded, and looking, wide eyed and caught off guard, into amber eyes that burned.

"Inuyasha…." Brown eyes wide she looked over to the spot from which he had not moved since she fell asleep and was immediately touched. There was no need to tell her self not to get her hopes up though. No, by now it was instinct. Immediately a little voice crept into her head, whispering the name that would rip that hope out of her chest. This time it was accompanied by an annoyingly insidious reminder that they were 700 years away from the priestess' death and it still all came down to her. Used to this painful reality check, Kagome showed no outer sign of its existence, but instead smiled into the hooded expression of the hanyou who was regarding her silently, but intently. 

"Gomen ne, Inuyasha. I…I don't know what I must have been dreaming about. Did I say anything else?" He didn't reply, but climbed easily to his feet. How did he not get stiff from sitting there? She had been asleep for hours!  When she only sat there on the futon, looking at him perplexedly at the door with his back to her, he spoke gruffly,

"The brat was just in here. We've got some stuff to talk about." He didn't look back and it stung her. He had been nicer earlier, now he was in definitely poor spirits. But then he was never predictable.

"Sorry. I'm still a little out of it I guess." She got up and followed her out of the little room, now noting that it was charming, despite it's simple appearance. It was well kept and old fashioned, undecorated but somehow comfortably lived in. She decided to tell the girl that what she thought later. Uzura was quiet but Kagome knew she was kind. She just needed a good friend. And Kagome wanted to be that friend. In cheerier spirits now that she was not dwelling on her non-existent romance with Inuyasha, Kagome was able to smile a genuine (though she was still waking up) smile at a grinning Shippou, a cautiously smiling Uzura, and an impatiently scowling Inuyasha. She went over and sat on the floor with Inuyasha who gave only glanced sideways at her. She didn't care if he didn't want her near him right now. His bad mood would have to wait. He was the only thing that was unchanged and she intended to hang on to that. She also didn't happen to be madly in love with anyone else in the room, but that was just a given. 

For a moment it was silent, uncomfortably silent to Kagome, who found herself speaking up to break the awkward silence.

"Anoo, Shippou-chan. I think you should go first. What happened? I don't remember…dying. How did we die? How did you guys survive?" Shippou shifted uncomfortably. 

"I told you, you died in your time. We weren't there. Inuyasha had just gone to get you…He followed him Kagome. Naraku followed to your time. Through the well." Shippou looked forlornly any where but at them. "You…didn't come back. But we had no way of knowing what had happened. Kouga, he came eventually, and we realized Naraku must have known, must have planned. He had Kouga's shards, somehow he knew about the well and had gathered up the remaining shards and gone after you guys. But we still thought…we thought you guys had won. Miroku's hand…the Kazaana disappeared. And we thought maybe you guys had defeated him, but couldn't get back. Kaede looked at the well and said it had changed, she was the one who said that it might have been destroyed in your time." Shippou's face was dark as he recounted these things, russet bangs hanging over his eyes. "It was easier to think that. I used to imagine that you'd patched things up," Here Kagome started slightly. Had things between them been bad? "I wondered if you guys got married.  Sango and Miroku got married eventually, I stayed with them and their children and their children. But eventually…"

Kagome understood. Eventually he lived into her time. He lived to realize that they had not won. "What happened, Shippou-chan? Were you there? Did you see?" He shook his head fiercely.

"I didn't! I had been living far away; Sango and Miroku had resettled where Sango's village had been. I had no idea when your time was, except from this…" He reached into a sleeve and with drew a scrap of paper that looked on the brink of crumbling to dust. Kagome stood and moved closer. 

"It's a candy wrapper!" She looked wide eyed at him. "From a candy I gave you?" He nodded.

"There was a date on it." She looked and could faintly make out a date. "And I remembered that you said you lived in Tokyo, even if I hadn't heard of it at the time."

"But-"

"It was too early, huh, brat?" Inuyasha was next to her so suddenly that she squeaked in surprise. He was glaring down at the scrap. "You came and realized that she didn't even know you yet."

"No. She knew me. And I waited. I had to be careful to stay out of scent range, because of your frequent visits." Shippou's voice was choked up now. Kagome glared at Inuyasha. If he belittled the kit now…He glared back at her but 'hmphed' and looked away, apparently understanding and taking offense to her meaning.

"Why didn't you help them then? Did you help them? Did you fight with them? How'd you survive it?" Uzura wondered aloud.

"He didn't." Inuyasha answered shortly. "The kit wasn't there. I'd remember."

Kagome looked at him in mild surprise. "You remember? But I- thought that you wouldn't…I don't remember anything!" Inuyasha sneered at her, but also looked slightly uncomfortable. 

"Well, I'm not a weak human like you, am I? Is it my fault that your memory's messed up?" At his insulting words Kagome let go of her concern for him. That jerk! It didn't help when he added, like the idiot he was, "Useless bitch."

"You're such a jerk Inuyasha! How should I know if it is your fault? I don't remember!" she threw out. "And you could have told me you remembered! Well why don't you tell me then, Inuyasha!? How'd I die? Huh? I'm sorry about my _weak, human, _memory…" her words sank into a dangerous hiss and she had tears in her eyes. "Tell me it's all my fault." Inuyasha recoiled looking shocked, but of course, undaunted. But then inevitably he caught noticed the tears in her eyes.

"Don't cry!" he sputtered, as usual, in the face of her tears. Off to the side, an unhappy but resigned looking Shippou put a restraining paw on Uzura's shoulder to keep her from interfering. Kagome didn't want to allow herself to be taken in by Inuyasha's panic at her tears. However his flattened ears and concerned face as well as (once again) the fact that she was nuts about him and hadn't meant to get so mad in the first place won over and she sighed. Also, she had inadvertently just brought up one of the real fears that had been plaguing her since she had first awakened as herself.

"Really, Inuyasha." Her gaze dropped and she brushed away the tears. "Is it my fault?" She didn't look up but could hear him mutter something angrily under his breath. 

"Is what your fault, wench?" thankfully Kagome's anger, though often quick to ignite, was not long enduring and had just burnt out. "That we're alive now? Yeah. That you lost your damn memory? Hell if I know." It was rare for Inuyasha to make a confession such as the one that he did then, "I don't know much more than you do about how all this happened. My memories of…that fight…are damn confusing. They…aren't complete I don't think. But at least I have them." Inuyasha tossed his head to the side, looking toward a wall, away from all three of his companions. 

"Keh." A pause. "But I still say you can't remember because you're human." Kagome, always easily changing moods, smiled a bit, through still watery eyes. It was Inuyasha's least favorite expression. She had learned as much one very interesting fight a couple months before the point where her memories ended. Sure enough, when he caught sight of it he sputtered again.

"What's with that face?" he failed to really sound angry.

"I –"She smiled a bit wider, and then turned to the others. "Think you might be right…" She couldn't deny this, as much as she wanted to get mad about him insulting her humanity again. "My human body, it wasn't preserved. It's not very clear to me, but I think this body…the jewel somehow remade it. Is that possible? The real person…she was a little girl but she died and…her soul, when it left…I'm not really sure, but it's like I stayed behind…or something, like I was inside of her and when she was gone, it was only me and then…my body just kind of grew from hers…" Kagome's voice was now far off sounding. Everything was clearer. The phantom memories, the strange limbo feeling for the past however many years. "She…I still have some of her in me I think…or I did." Closing her eyes, Kagome reached for what had been the clearest of those memories. Cranes…

_"That's right, dear. Now fold this here…" A vague sense of being was all that she could grasp, brushing against strange bits of the girl's knowledge as she listened to the voice…the mother's voice, and took in the surroundings. It wasn't her mother's voice. But…it was Hers. _

_Little hands clumsily followed the directions. Too clumsily. In a moment, larger, but also feminine hands joined her small ones, guiding them through the motions._

To the shock and apprehension of everyone in the room, when Kagome's eye's opened they were pale gray-blue, empty and seemingly unseeing. She blinked rapidly and gasped. Inuyasha rushed forward needlessly. Her eyes and her being had returned to normal. She smiled proudly. 

"I didn't know I could do that." Her smile faded as she looked at the faces of her friends. "Um…Did something happen?" Inuyasha, was first to reply, answering angry at her or his own concern for her, she could never be sure.

"Don't **ever** do that again! What were you thinking? What did you-" he swiped at the air angrily as he spoke ending with an inarticulate, "Argh! Idiot!"

I didn't do anything. I just…well I don't know exactly. It was like reaching. Even before, those memories weren't very clear. It was kind of like I had…I don't know how to explain it. But I don't think it was dangerous." She realized she was sitting on the floor again, when she clearly remembered standing to fight with Inuyasha.

"But you don't know!? Why would you do that? Why would you take the risk of doing something…so, so incomprehensible without even knowing what it was you were trying to do." Surprisingly, it was Uzura who scolded Kagome this time, looking less angry than completely thrown. Shippou raised an eyebrow. 

"The thing is," he addressed Kagome, "None of us know what happened, what you did. We just saw you close your eyes. Then, I don't know if Uzura felt it, but there was a small surge of-"

"Of course I felt it! I may not be a demon, but I'm not-"

"-miko power. Then your eyes when you first opened them, were different. A strange color and sorta empty, ya know?"

"-a complete amateur you know!"

"Hmmm" Kagome contemplated what Shippou had said. "I still think that it worked out fine. Not that I learned anything useful. Just…that whoever that other girl was, her name was Kei…Nakashima? Natsuyama? I'm not really sure. It's not really important. She…isn't a part of me. Not really."

"Not really? What the hell does that mean? She is or isn't!" Inuyasha was looking on edge and growling low but very audible. This in turn was putting Uzura slightly on edge.

"I mean. This body…it used to be hers. But her soul is gone. She wasn't a reincarnation or anything. She…died I think. She was sick in the memory. That's why she wanted to make all those cranes…"  

"That name sounds a bit-" But at that moment Inuyasha leapt in front of Kagome growling loud and fierce. 

"Damn it! Tell me there's a back door to this dump, girl." Uzura looked alarmedly at Shippou also tense and on guard then to Kagome, who gave her an encouraging smile and a nod. 

"There's not. No way out." Inuyasha smirked. Kagome spoke up, her miko senses trained on the door.

"We're out of time." There was a bang on the door.

"No door isn't no way out." He drew Tetsusaiga in a way that said clearly 'I've been waiting for this.' However he was to be disappointed. Though the Kaze no Kizu did indeed send streaking yellow destruction cutting through Uzura's main room (to a small protesting sound from her), it failed to breach the wall, leaving scorched walls but no way out.

"Shit!" Inuyasha spun. "What was that?" Uzura stammered, obviously as surprised as him.

"I don't know. That sword, that's the sword you used to attack Naraku's fortress, to do all that damage! How could you not break it down?"

"Must be a barrier." Tetsusaiga turned a deep red. "TETSUSAIGA!" this time the wall fell. However as they moved to make their timely escape, Kagome and Shippou knowing that it was also a reluctant retreat, most likely one he only agreed to in order to be assured of Kagome's safety. In the midst of their escape the soft sound of rapid motion and a haughty looking youkai blocked their path to escape with a scolding look on her sharply featured face.

"I'm afraid you'll need to stick around a bit longer." Their escaped was blocked.

 "Keh. It's better this way anyway." 

Shippou didn't miss the concerned glance that Inuyasha shot at Kagome in the face of impending danger, or the way the hanyou edged closer to her. He knew that Inuyasha's paranoia concerning her safety had only been increased by their barely escaped death. Which figured, especially considering the small but still present similarities to the whole Kikyo fiasco. When he had first known Inuyasha, Shippou hadn't understood the twisted triangle that held Kagome, Inuyasha, and the dead priestess. But now, older and wiser he knew what had been going on. And, believing that the dog-boy's feelings were much stronger for Kagome and had clearly not been tainted by any sort of misplaced hate, he could only imagine how the guilt over allowing Naraku to take not only his life but the life of the woman he loved for the second time had left Inuyasha multiple times more set on revenge and multiple times more guilt ridden. Thus Kagome would most likely soon find herself hard up to find any time alone. 

Something about it wasn't right. Why knock? Could it possibly not be an enemy? This seemed more and more likely. Shippou could sense only two youkai. He didn't smell any humans. He knew there were concealing tricks…but then, why not conceals all youkai? And why would an enemy have knocked on the door? Hesitantly, for he knew the pitfalls of trying to reason with a battle ready Inuyasha, Shippou tried to voice his read of the situation. 

"I don't-something about this isn't…I don't think it's what it seems." The female youkai sent him a sharp reproving look.

"Kitsune-" she began to hiss out angrily at him, before she was interrupted. 

"A trap? Not a very good one is it? Knocking? Waiting to attack? How fucking stupid does Naraku think I am?" There was no surprise there. Of course the hanyou didn't know what he was talking about. He looked at Kagome pleadingly. She had to know. She was always the brains of their group.

"No…Inuyasha. I think it's not a trap." She looked at the youkai before them, who gave a short nod. "I don't think it's an attack at all." Her snarled at the door.

"Don't be an idiot. What else could it be?" He glared at Shippou. 

"I just don't think it's what we think. I think…she's familiar. And the other youkai's scent too. "

"You've _met_ the youkai that are attacking us?!"

"Not the brightest pup in the litter is he?" the female demon sneered. Internally Shippou groaned. Yes, baiting him would make it go better. Perhaps luckily, Kagome chose the same moment to make her own assessment of Inuyasha's intelligence, distracting him from the smirking demon in front of him.

"Gah! No, you stupid dog! I just don't think this is an attack!" Kagome, seemed now to be in complete agreement and willing to take the chance. Uzura was out right distrustful. Inuyasha scowled at her but didn't look anymore ready to attack than he looked ready to back down (which wasn't much). Then, of course, at that moment the front door swung open. A male demon joined them inside.

"So paranoid and you don't even lock your door. Hmm, and I see you didn't appreciate our politness either. Trying to sneak out the backdoor. Isn't that just like a dog?"

Inuyasha growled.  Moving faster than possible for him, save for the protection of one human girl he grabbed her and pushed her roughly into the work room. 

"Inuyasha! Wha-" the slamming of the heavy door firmly, to the point of lodging it into its place, silenced her. Uzura turned on him, an expression of disbelief on her face.

"Do you know what you just did? The heat will kill her."

"I know what I'm doing! There's no way the kit's fire will kill her! Keh. I don't have time to argue with you right now, bitch." He pulled Tetsusaiga. "Just two then? Has Naraku gotten more stupid over the last hundreds of years?" He smirked. "Oi. Shippou, protect that other bitch will you?" Uzura opened her mouth angrily only to be cut off by the female youkai.

"Silence, Inuyasha." The youkai who had stepped from behind the wall, a female, spoke firmly, sending another admonishing glare at Shippou, who for the life of him didn't know how to interpret this. "The kitsune should have alerted you to our common goals. We are not here to fight. Retrieve your woman. She is to come with us." Shippou was now positive that they were not enemies. He also knew that she had said the wrong thing. Implying a romantic link between Inuyasha and Kagome while simultaneously issuing what the hanyou would interpret as a threat against her life. The warring of his desires to protect and to deny that in order to save his pride would only lead her and her companion to quicker but no less painful death. So he said, at risk of later cranial damage,

"You're from the underground?" He wished he hadn't been so stupid. The thought hadn't even entered his mind. In the excitement of the day he had forgotten about them. Forgotten that of course they would know of their return. Forgotten that they would obviously seek to draw them into their ranks. It was the other demon who answered in a warm voice that masked the sarcasm of his words. 

"Good call. I must admit Shippou, I had doubted whether your small kitsune mind had the capability to hold onto anything at all. And here you had almost proved me right." Shippou bared his fangs.

"Ya stupid bastards. You realize this coulda been your deaths?" Inuyasha was truly thrown.

"What the hell is going on here Shippou?" Shippou took a deep breath, his anger and mild distrust would only set Inuyasha off.

"They weren't sent by Naraku. They're from a demon resistance against him." He turned to the female demon. 

"Resistance my ass. I say we-" Inuyasha began, as Shippou addressed the female, who seemed to be the leader.

"How'd you find us? What do you want? Why come here yourselves? Their must have been some way to send a message in a less threatening form. So why the show?" He glanced at Inuyasha, still on the precipe of attacking ('If only he hadn't locked Kagome away!' Shippou thought desperately.) and at Uzura, who appeared to be in shock, backing toward the workroom slowly and obviously attempting not to show how her courage was failing her. He didn't blame her. Her life had been relatively peaceful. She had fought, yes, but against more minor targets, with opponents who were human or barely more than animals. The stress combined had weakened her resolve. However, Shippou was satisfied to note that she still remained more composed than Inuyasha. Her weapon was still drawn but she showed no signs of preparing to attack.

"-kill them both and be done with it. They're demons and they attacked us!"

The woman sneered. "Kitsune. Always so full of such bothersome curiosity. No wonder none of you ever make good warriors. Sometimes I think you'd do more service to our side if you were fighting for _him instead." She continued, absently flipping a whisp of dark hair over her shoulder. "It was simple to find you, as you should well know. What we want is for all of you, well the human warrior is none of our concern though she is certainly welcome," an insincere smile at the girl, "We came because we were sent, and because it is too important that you come for, to quote, "The decision to be left up to that arrogant, idiotic, distrustful hanyou brat. We were sent to get the girl, first and foremost." She smirked at Inuyasha. "The show was entirely the hanyou's doing."_

"Now listen, you bastards. If you think for-"

"And what a show." Remarked the male demon. 

At that moment the door of the workroom burst open, and a sweating and angry Kagome stumbled out (glowing slightly with miko energy that she didn't notice she was using), bracing herself on with the arm of a startled Uzura and breathing heavily for a moment, before releasing the girl and turning to Inuyasha angrily.

"INUYASHA!" She yelled; face red most likely from a mixture of anger, embarrassment, and heat. The demon woman smirked.

"GET BACK IN THERE!" He shouted back.

"I WILL NOT!" Kagome yelled back. She wiped her face with one hand and made a face, clenching her other hand into a fist at her side. "You jerk! That stupid room wouldn't let me out! And plus Shippou-chan doesn't think these people are dangerous and I agree with him and if you weren't such a stubborn JERK you would see that they weren't a threat! If they were a threat wouldn't they have attacked already? If Naraku knew where we were wouldn't he have sent more than enough people to kill us? He rules the world Inuyasha! He could send more than enough people to be sure that we died." She made a loud disgruntled sound and began using the sleeve of her dress to dry her face. 

"Now listen…That damn brat hasn't told me a single fucking thing, bitch!" He spun toward Shippou and whacked him across the head. "What the hell do you know about them, eh brat?" Shippou yelped, and then darkened with embarrassment.

"Ow, you stupid jerk. Just what I said. And…I worked with their group before. Until about 50 years ago." He looked at the two demons expectantly. The woman looked exasperated. 

"And some help you were. Refused to kill any humans. Even the girl's more of a fighter than you ever were." She smiled a predatory smile.  Kagome coughed, either to call attention or from some imagined smoke inhalation it was unclear. 

"Ah…Shouldn't we be, er, going wherever it is you wanted to take us."

"We AREN'T going!"

"We are, Inuyasha. I think it should be of interest to you. She has ordered that you be helped in you victory. It seems that you are something of a last hope for us." Shippou swallowed, he knew who she was. And Inuyasha wasn't going to like it. Kagome looked puzzled.

"Who is she? The one who sent you?"

"She is our matriarch. The mother of our resistance." Her voice, when she spoke of this mysterious leader, took on a quality of reverence that Shippou recognized. It was how all spoke of her. He mentally winced, thinking of how they would react when Inuyasha insulted and attempted to kill their leader. The demon woman glanced at her companion. "She will want to tell the rest for herself." Kagome nodded. 

"All right. Take us to her." Her inherent sense of implicit trust won out. She was interested. And she really had a reason to take down Naraku now. Kill her would he! She'd show him. These demons seemed trustworthy, their cause important. Shippou trusted them They had made no attempt to hurt them and Kagome sensed no ill will. That was enough for her. Inuyasha on the other hand...

"WHO SAID YOU COULD DECIDE, WENCH?"

"Osuwari." Sniffing primly Kagome added, "We'll be ready in just a second."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Okay, even though I said that I was going to work I'm actually writing end notes now. How was it? I know I shouldn't critique my own work but I'm really iffy on the last part. With the knocking and all…I still might go back and change it, even if it isn't a big deal in the scheme of things, it bothers me. Please tell me what you think! I really do appreciate every review. 

Till next time…


	8. His Resistance

A/N: So I looked at that knocking stuff and I was like, "What is this crap?" Seriously. And I don't swear much! So yeah, anyway, I went back and changed it a little. Go back and read it. Or not. 

And I'm going to briefly explain why I make Inuyasha swear. I don't know much Japanese, so I don't know how much he actually swears. What I do know is that he speaks in a way that is very rude and disrespectful. In Japan this would be different verb conjugations and pronouns (the most well known of which I believe is "Temee" which is a really rude way to say "you" and is usually translated as "bastard" or something similar) the thing about this is that it's hard to express in English. So basically the swearing is a way to make him seem more coarse and disrespectful. Not quite the same I know, but…oh well, I'll try not to over do it.

Well, that fulfills our random digression for the chapter, let's get on with the story.

PS. I still haven't gained the rights to Inuyasha. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Chapter 6: His Resistance

Ten minutes later, Inuyasha was still cursing. Fortunately, or unfortunately for him, he had no way of dissuading Kagome once her mind was set, and she was determined to go with the two strange, but so far harmless demons, to see their leader. Inuyasha was obviously not willing to let the girl run off into danger (as she always had a habit of doing, the foolish girl) again and therefore was forced to comply with the demons' wishes. That didn't mean that he had to be happy about it, though, and Inuyasha was determined to make sure the girl didn't forget how much he didn't want to go. 

"Damn it! Look at this place!" he grumbled. They were presently making their way through the surprisingly clean, (though Kagome, ever concerned with cleanliness, still had a grimace of distaste stuck on her face) sewers of the city. It felt plain wrong. Inuyasha knew not to trust anyone who led you into an enclosed area from which escape would be difficult at best. 

"I don't think anything bad is going to happen."  When he scoffed loudly she added. "If they wanted to attack us they could have sent enough demons to take us all out when we were unsuspecting." Mildly, thoughtlessly she finished with, "I know you don't like it but you're going to have to trust me."

That word. How he hated that word. Detested it, the vile twisted word that it was. Trust. Yes he trusted Kagome. And no he didn't. He didn't trust her not to die. No, he hadn't trusted Kikyo. Yes there was something that had been broken when he thought she was attacking him, some element of comfort he had felt around her. Trust was a complicated subject. And as Inuyasha's life was currently dealing him all the complications he could handle while remaining sane, he was less then pleased to hear the subject brought up. Even if it was casually. Even though he was pretty sure she didn't realize it. 

"Keh!" He said loudly, causing 5 heads to whip around surprised and questioning. "Don't bring up such stupid things. Why are you asking things like that at a time like this, idiot?" Kagome drew back a bit (she had been hanging quite close by his side) looking slightly hurt. It wasn't so much the words as the strange anger in his voice. It was…defensive and unsettled.

"Inuyasha?" She questioned, using his name in place of the questions she couldn't seem to find a way to word. He pulled inside himself, something she noticed and frowned at but no one else did. They were holding everyone up.

"Let's go." he ground out. Not waiting for her, he strode ahead of her walking just behind their guides, one hand on the hilt of Tetsusaiga. He heard Shippou and the Uzura girl falling back to walk with Kagome. He was angry and confused. It was so much the same between them. His short temper, her unpredictable one. Her tenderness and his anger. He wanted things to be different, though he wasn't sure how. But he also…the way they were had always been fine. It had been friendship and he enjoyed it. Well, not necessarily this side of it, but still. He wondered if it bothered her. Then he concentrated on walking. He listened to Kagome tell frivolous stories about her life in her time. Shippou pitched in with stories of he and Inuyasha's time. They were light stories, that weren't really fit for the darkness of the sewer. Inuyasha growled low in his throat. Things in this new time were unpredictable and dangerous. He didn't like them. He didn't trust them.

"And then my grandfather accidentally ended up burning down the whole thing." Kagome laughed at her own story, accompanied by a, as it turned out, still contagiously cheerful Shippou-chan and Uzura-chan's own unsure laugh. "Mama was so mad! She had really been looking forward to the booth at the festival and all that survived was a few metal charms. Grandpa cried for a week over those lizard tails…" Kagome smiled wistfully not allowing herself to feel any of the pain that came with the undeniable fact that her time was now lost to her. She knew later she would cry herself to sleep, probably more than once, as much as she knew that neither Inuyasha nor Shippou-chan would say anything about it. For now she laughed at her recounting of her Grandfather's botched sanctification of her mother's first attempt at a festival booth for the shrine. She smiled and laughed along as Shippou chimed in with his own story of a small adventure in a festival back in the feudal ages. She was surprised that she had never heard it before, as the kit had always been very talkative. 

Unfortunately, they could not remain in pleasant denial of the present for long. 

"Stop for a moment." The female demon, who was the friendlier of the two (which said not much at all) ordered them flatly. Ignoring the slight (well more than slight in Inuyasha's case) bristling on the part of Kagome's two demon friends, she smiled slightly as she looked to her left and realized (with a small, amused smile) that although Uzura-chan had no demon aura, she too bristled ever so slightly. Although no doubt still on edge due to her general unfamiliarity with demons, the girl was obviously not accustomed to taking orders. Kagome couldn't say she was at all sure that this was going to go well. Things like this never went well for her. 

Sure enough things went rapidly past bad into worse when the male demon demanded sarcastically, "You won't be taking your sword in, though I know it must pain a barbarian like yourself to be without his primary method of communication. Leave it here, don't worry, no one will remove it." His annoying impression of knowing more about Inuyasha than he let on was overshadowed by the fact that he had just told Inuyasha to willingly release the Tetsusaiga.

"NO!" Inuyasha shouted, possessively tightening his grip on the Tetsusaiga. Kagome, decided to interrupt.

"He can't leave the Tetsusaiga!" She explained urgently. "He may seem like a violent, unthinking jerk, but he won't attack anyone unless absolutely necessary." Inuyasha looked haughty. 

"I wouldn't need the Tetsusaiga to deal with you, bastards anyway." The male demon opened his mouth to respond but the female demon spoke up first, addressing him harshly.

"Ganzo! You know that we're not to remove the sword from him, you feather brained fool!" It was the first possible sign of personality that she had shown, and Kagome was unaccountably reassured by it. 

Even more surprising, the male demon was visible flustered. In fact, he seemed to puff up with it. "I still don't understand! She makes these ridiculous allowances! And no explanation!" he made an odd huffing noise. The female demon smiled at him in a commiserating way. 

"You know she has her reasons." At this point Inuyasha'a patience ran out, though the other three were watching with keen interest.

"Are we going to see your damn boss or not?" he demanded. At that moment Kagome contemplated the possibility that Inuyasha and the male (was it goose?) demon were roughly the same age (discounting the large portions of time Inuyasha had spent in timeless sleep). They were currently wearing similar scowls, which were now aimed at each other. The demon, apparently called Ganzo, tossed his head and readopted his indifferent coldness. The female, whose name was still unknown to them, placed a hand against what Kagome identified as a complex barrier spell. 

The next second they were standing in the midst of several dangerous looking demons. Of these Kagome found that she recognized some of the species. A kitsune was among them, with hair of a darker red than Shippou. This Kitsune was female and serious, no trace of Shippou's playful nature on her face. But Kagome did notice her eyes lingering on the kit, with faint traces of something that might have been approval. There were also a couple species of wolf demon present, one looking like the big, burly, Royokan, who she had met near the beginning of her friendship with Inuyasha  others looking more like Kouga-kun, though their hair was a lighter shade, as were the pelts they wore as clothing, which suggested that they were from a different tribe. 

With a start Kagome realized that the wolf prince might well be alive. It whispered happily through her breast, the possibility of another friend who had not yet succumbed to time. 

The demons scrutinized them, but abruptly lost interest and they spotted the two demon guides. One, who looked to be an old bat demon, grunted a short greeting,

"Ganzo, Koeno. We've been wondering when you would return. She was growing impatient." He seemed to be an important figure the two demons as both offered a respectful bow, which was a rare occasion between demons, particularly between demons of different species. Shippou followed suit immediately, apparently also catching onto whatever status this demon held. Uzura gave a short nod of her head, proud and untrusting. Kagome, never one to appear rude when she could help it joined the rest in the respecting of the old bat demon. She didn't expect Inuyasha to do likewise and was not disappointed. 

"Zasshuro-sama. We acted as quickly as possible, given the constraints placed upon us." Ganzo's voice was formal and respectful, though Kagome thought that he still seemed a bit sulky and indignant.

"The hanyou and human girl were found in the presence of human warrior Noroibushi Uzura and the Kitsune who calls himself Higurashi Shippou." Kagome was startled to hear her own last name applied to the kitsune. She glanced at him, along with Inuyasha who also looked surprised, despite himself. Shippou smiled ruefully. It was very odd. She would have at least thought that he would take Sango and Miroku's family name. The female demon continued as if the group were not carrying on as they were, with silent, expressive glances. Even the demon Ganzo was joining in, looking mockingly at Shippou and questioningly mocking at the rest of them. "The hanyou, Inuyasha was at first unwilling to accompany us, and desired to fight. His cooperation is not guaranteed, however it is likely that he will join with us if the human miko is with us." Her tone was more clipped and professional that her companions had been. 

"Very well, though there really isn't any need to sound quite so stiff, Koeno, as I have mentioned before." He looked at the four guests, ignoring Inuyasha's red face. "It's this way. I will just warn you to trust that we are not the enemy." He was directing his speech at Inuyasha, but nobody questioned this. There was no mistaking who he was warning anyway. "It has been a long time since you walked the earth." 

Kagome found his message slightly chilling and forbidding. Inuyasha tensed further and she forced away the apprehension, grumbling internally about always having to be the mature one. He didn't want to be here, but did he have to be so stubbornly on guard?

The hallway was straight now, and a little wider than the sewer. It was made of the same material, and was equally dreary but, thankfully, very clean. It was sad though, Kagome was pretty sure that to a demon, used to being out in the air and unconstrained, this dim underground facility must feel suffocating. She didn't like to think of Shippou spending the better part of his life here. Had he been a child here, or an adolescent, trapped in a gray cement tunnel? She hoped he had been at least the equivalent of her age before he had been forced underground. She didn't know how demon ageing worked. 

At the end of the hallway was a regal looking wooden door. It was a deep reddish color that seemed warm against the concrete underground they had seen so far. The old demon pounded a wrinkled fist against the door and the noise echoed in the hallway. Inuyasha winced slightly, but the other demons didn't seem to mind it. A female voice that Kagome was sure she had heard before rang out like a bell.

"Come in." a wind blew the door open with a bang that made Kagome jump and 'Eep" and Inuyasha curse.

Shippou was tense and Kagome was beginning to fill with dread as that added another piece to the puzzle. Shippou knew who they were about to meet, and was uncomfortable about it. He hadn't said anything about who it was, but now looked rather ill. And an underground wind had just blown the door open. 

"Oh, HELL no." when Inuyasha swore again, Kagome was pretty sure. The next second they stepped into the room and her hunch was confirmed. It was Kagura.

If she had not been shocked by the calm figure before her she might have been awed by the elegance and illusion of the room. The way the floor was carpeted in a thick green carpet. The way the walls were covered in creeping vines. The sunlight that streamed through the canopy of trees that was the ceiling. The trees themselves. The fresh air. As it was she barely tore her eyes away from the wind using demoness long enough to spy little Kanna as emotionless as ever, mirror showing Kagome's own pale face. 

"Inuyasha. I imagine that you must-" She began. Her voice was different, calmer, and less cruel than Kagome remembered it. Inuyasha interrupted her.

"KAGURA! I'LL KILL YOU!" Tetsusaiga was halfway out when Shippou grabbed the hanyou's arm and twisted his wrist, breaking his grip and sending Testsusaiga sliding back into down into its sheath. There was a pregnant pause. Kagome pushed her mind to reach some sort of conclusion. 

On the one hand, Kagura had, on a rare occasion or two, suggested that she despised her creator and his hold over her. She had not told Naraku when she discovered Inuyasha's changing night…or so it seemed. Maybe she didn't need to tell him. Who knew how deeply they were connected. That was another point. How could Kagura be the leader of the resistance against Naraku? His hold over her had been complete.

On the other hand, she was undeniably different, from her calm and almost warm aura to her apparent ability to command the respect of the demons in this underground world. In fact, there was a reason that it had been Shippou who stopped Inuyasha from attacking. The other three were kneeling in the doorway, heads down. And Shippou…he had known it was her, he must have, and yet he had wanted them to come, and obviously trusted her.

While Kagome's mind was racing, the action in the room couldn't just stand still. Inuyasha whirled and looked at Shippou in shock. The kitsune glared back, looking ruefully apologetic, but also angry.

"Idiot!" he spat at his dog demon friend. "Do you really think this is some elaborate trap?" Inuyasha was thrown. The kit was challenging him.

"It's Kagura, you stupid brat! She's the same as Naraku! He made her! Of course it's a damn trap!" Shippou twisted his wrist more. Inuyasha snarled and broke the grip. 

"You have to THINK this time, dog boy!" Shippou admonished, increasing Inuyasha's bristling. "Just smell her! She isn't the same!" 

"Stop!" Kagome cried at that moment, having just come out of her thoughts enough to perceive the several fights Inuyasha was possibly preparing to fight. 

Inuyasha gave her a look of disbelieving anger. "You're taking his side! You know it's her, damn it!" He growled and shoved the kit out of the way. "I don't care what you think!" Tetsusaiga was quite suddenly drawn. Every demon in the room besided Kagura and Kanna prepared to attack, until Kagura held up a delicate hand and glared at each of them. Her gaze rested on Kagome.

"Well girl, I see the little nap you gave him didn't improve his senses did it." Kagome glared half heartedly at her. 

"I didn't say that I believed you. I remember you as well as he does. What you did to Kouga-kun, to us." Kagome stepped to the side, placing herself between Inuyasha and Kagura. "I want to hear what you have to say. You went through a lot to get us here. Shippou trusts you, and I don't (glare back at Inuyasha) think that he would lead us into danger on purpose. So…I guess you just better talk, because Inuyasha isn't very patient." She passed an appraising gaze over the youkai woman in front of her. "But for what it's worth, you do seem different." Kagura smiled slightly and nodded at the girl.

"No one stands in front of me, bitch!" Inuyasha muttered angrily in her ear. She ignored him, but stepped to the side, placing a restraining hand on Inuyasha's hands, gripped tightly on Tetsusaiga, then removed it a moment later. Too much effort to restrain him would only make him more angry.

"Inuyasha. I became free from Naraku's control about 700 years ago." Her voice was the same as Kagome remembered it…but calmer. Where the wind youkai she remembered was flamboyant and arrogant, she now spoke confidently, but also with respect that she had not showed before. 

"It was because Naraku followed you into the future. Later I learned that you had died. When I reached the time period where Naraku was again existent, I learned that he could take this world. But I couldn't stop him. I had survived, and so had Kanna, as free beings, we were changed, a bit in scent, and by the centuries." She sighed at Inuyasha's continuous glare, and the way that his hands still gripped the Tetsusaiga in unwavering readiness for battle. As an aside she added, "I suppose we can't say the same for you. But then…I wouldn't have expected it." There were strong hints of her old biting wit in the statement, but it lacked the cruelty. 

The hanyou muttered under his breath, and Kagome was almost happy that she couldn't make them out. From the way their new demon acquaintances bristled, the way Shippou balked and the way Kagura laughed, they were better off remaining unheard. She was only grateful that he seemed intrigued enough by her words to hold back. Maybe he had been willing to give her the benefit of the doubt more that Kagome had suspected. 

Kagura continued. "We were some of the number of demons who retained our full power, or near it in any case. The age of demons, what you, Kagome, know as the Feudal Ages, came to an end. Demons changed, some less and some slower than others. To make a long story short, there was a reason that you were never attacked by demons in the future, girl. Demons became peaceful and most of us also became less powerful. We hid from society, but I'm sure some of us came in contact with you Kagome, I don't know why you didn't notice us, I'm sorry. Perhaps a mental block? But I'm going on to long, aren't I, Inuyasha?" he didn't respond. 

"We were no match for Naraku. He was a surprise. Most didn't realize who he was until he killed them. He infiltrated our infrastructures first, killed our leaders. He freed the elements of our society that longed to return to the violent savagery that we had left behind. Of course there were demons who challenged him, but it happened so fast, and they had grown peaceful. He demolished them. Your brother was among them Inuyasha."

"Keh, that bastard?" Inuyasha said, in what Kagome assumed was his version of a polite response in this situation.

"He took the world too easily. There were too many youkai who already felt restless, or were opportunistic and stupid enough to think they could profit off of his rise." She paused and laughed a bitter laugh, looking up at the illusionary sky.

"I wasn't involved of course. I don't even know if he felt it, or tried to pull me back. The day he came into this world I felt my heart being pulled back toward him. It took all my strength to resist it long enough." Her angry red gaze flickered over to Kanna. 

"She didn't feel it. She didn't have a heart. What heart she has now she built over time. She stayed with me, even though I know that she knew he had come, and helped me some. I built this place under the ground, as close to Naraku as I could." She smirked and Kagome suddenly felt a wave of sympathy. 

Even if she still had her doubts, even if she knew that if Inuyasha decided to attack or to leave without doing whatever it was that she had brought them here for she would stand by him, even with the fear that still lay in her heart when she looked upon this old enemy, she couldn't deny the pity and empathy in her heart. It only increased when Kagura finished her story.

"I vowed to kill him. Only through his death will I be free again. And I want freedom. If you don't believe that over the centuries that I was free of him I changed, believe that I want him to die." She glared at Inuyasha and neither of them looked away. Uzura was looking away, scowling inexplicably. Shippou was looking away. Kagome cleared her throat, bringing the attention in the room to her.

"I…believe you Kagura. But I'm not sure I understand all the details of what's happening here." This was too true. The more she learned or guessed about the world following her death the more confusing it became. She knew that Inuyasha felt similarily, from his strange outbursts of anger or his strange lack of anger…well it was confusing, but she had been hanging by his side long enough to read him a little, at least. He was disoriented, like her, and with Inuyasha that would, in the end, probably only lead to bloodshed. 

"KEH! So you need us to do your dirty work for you? The way I see it, with your little set up here, maybe you want to just finish what he fucking started!" Inuyasha's anger had variations, as was logical considering how often he spent angry. This anger was a derisive, confident type. In his mind he had just figured out why it was all a trick, and therefore something in the world had just clicked back into place. 

Kagome knew he tended to pick the explanation that satisfied him the most, but in this case she couldn't help thinking that he might have a point. After all, Kagura obviously took well to a leadership position, and she had never, despite her apparent wish to be free, really seemed remorseful, or worried about anything but her own freedom. Kagome was surprised when Shippou spoke in defense of her. It was strange hearing him speak up, especially with the careful tone he adopted now, rather than the more familiar, casual, friendly note his voice usually held.

"You don't understand at all Inuyasha. She isn't the same Kagura that we knew. I think she's really changed. I worked for her for over a hundred years. She isn't like him, not anymore. We have to trust her." Kagome noticed that when he spoke of her, the same admiration shone in his eyes as shone in the eyes of the three strange demons. 

"Keh! She hasn't! She obviously still likes manipulating people." Kagura frowned. 

"Manipulating. Yes, you do remember well, don't you Inuyasha? Though I guess it's only been mere, what? Weeks, since we last fought? It's more clever than I would have expected from you, connecting the control over living beings with the manipulation of corpses. Of course, it's still wrong, but I'm impressed." She sounded so sincere that Kagome wondered if the words had actually been meant as a compliment. 

It was silent for a long while in the strange room. Then Inuyasha surprised everyone by sheathing the Tetsusaiga. He replied to their shocked stares indignantly.

"KEH! Well for now it seems like she doesn't plan on killing us. Once Naraku's dead it'll be easy to kill her! And she'd trapped in this little box for now." He smirked at her. "You send someone after us and I'll bring this pathetic place down, Kagura. Trust! Keh, I'm not stupid!" Ganzo stood for the first time since they had entered the room.

"I don't know if the rest of us would agree to that, now, Inuyasha." He tossed his head in a way that was becoming familiar. "Even your human bitch has more sense than you."

"Hey! Who're you calling a-" sure Inuyasha called her the same and worse everyday, but…still, why did she always end up the one being insulted by demons?

"That's enough, hatchling. Inuyasha is indeed more than he seems. We need him." Despite his hatred for the wind user, Inuyasha puffed up a bit. 

"Damn right, even _Kagome_ could take you, weakling, and she fights like shit!" Kagome's eye twitched.

"_Inuyasha__." he looked at her suspiciously. _

"You wouldn't-"

"Osuwari!" She huffed. "You're such a jerk!" Shippou clapped his hands together.

"I knew it!" he exclaimed over Inuyasha's loud cursing. "I knew that that would always be funny!" 

"On that note," Kagura said, moving gracefully toward them, "I believe that we should begin the tour. Ganzo, Koeno, Zasshuro-jiisan, you may all take your leave. Return to your posts. I believe your superior has a new assignment for you two, by the way. Her voice was warmer, and Kagome wondered what was more real. The sarcasm or the warmth that she seemed to have gained.

As far as Inuyasha was concerned, the whole thing was ridiculous. He didn't want to go along with it. He didn't want to listen to the little brat blabber about how great that bitch Kagura was. He didn't want to see Miroku's brat follow along in stony, distrustful, attentive, silence. He didn't want to watch Kagome be hesitant in her trust. In his mind she was meant to be trusting to a fault, eager to believe in the good in anyone. It was part of her strength and also her most foolish fault. He knew that it was partly a figment of his mind, in the small place in his brain where he admitted that he was wrong. She didn't trust everyone automatically. But it was the best way for him to reconcile the fact of her unerring faith in him. 

In the end he wouldn't have to decide just then. In fact he wouldn't have to weigh out his feelings about the wind user for a while. At that moment a youthful looking guard staggered in out of breath and slightly bloody. 

"Kagura-sama! It's him, Kouga-sama! He's gone mad again. Escaped. He-He's looking for you…and someone else, we think. We're not sure. But someone said he was asking for..."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  


Till next time then…


End file.
